I'll Be Right Here
by dib07
Summary: Sequel to Sonic's Need. After Eggman's attack, a lot more damage has been done than initially thought. Chris is powerless while Sonic's life hangs in the balance. Based on Sonic X. Disclaimer in fic.
1. Chapter 1

**I'll Be Right Here**

(Sequel to Sonic's Need)

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><p>By Dib07<p>

Disclaimer: We do not own Sonic's toys, his bedroom, his tooth pick or his soap. Sega does. And everything else. This fic is purely for fans.

Sorry I didn't have time to email you thanking for all for reviewing! But thanks sooo much for your support from Sonic's Need! It is because of the readers that I chose to continue this fanfiction!

This was supposed to be another Sonic X one shot but I decided to add a couple of chapters in to keep it going a little longer. Bear in mind that there are no 'strict' couples and I have tried to keep them in character as much as I can. This fic is purely fun based and a little experimental for me. Enjoy the story! BTW very pleased that I got so many reviews on the original 'Sonic's Need.' I didn't know there was so many Chris x Sonic fans out there! Well guys and gals, this is for you!

**What went before:**

Chris left school and decided to go home using a shortcut. Dr. Eggman anticipated this move and went for him, intent on snaring Chris in a trap meant for anybody that strayed into it. Eggman had previously been mottled by defeat and was desperate to do some damage. Sonic stepped in at once and saved Chris in moments. However, a resulting explosion rattled the earth and Sonic was found wounded from the damage. Eggman's status remains unknown.

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: Who Needs Saving?<strong>

The sun lathered the land in a dry, warm light. The trees solemnly swayed against the rare, atrophied winds that ruffled their leaves. There were hardly any clouds measuring the day and there had been no rain for weeks. Sonic watched Chris standing inertly by the open window and watched his mop of hair shiver in the light breeze that swept up from below. He had been standing there a lot lately as if he did not know where else to place himself. Chris's room wasn't really that big either, what with a tidy bookshelf covering one whole wall, a bed against the opposite side complete with wardrobe and desk. His own cot was close to Chris's own bed which didn't help in saving space. This chagrined Amy of course. She couldn't see him all of the time and when she did, she was often surrounded by the others – causing a tight squeeze. Which didn't help. So most of the time she remained downstairs watching TV and crying or throwing tantrums. And it didn't help much when only important people had jurisdiction over her.

"Chris, have you had any other... animals before?"

The young boy turned from the window and walked to stand by his cot. Sonic would have happily greeted him by sitting up and climbing out the damned cot if he could, but rising even for a brief time caused nausea and onerous headaches.

"What? As in – pets?" Politely he knelt down so that he was near enough eye level with Sonic. "Yeah. I had a few." He shrugged at this casually as if it meant nothing.

Sonic persisted weakly through the mask. "Tell me."

"Well, I had a budgie. That was my first one. Only had it for two days. As soon as we took it home and put it in its cage, it went kinda mad. Started flapping around and shrieking. Then after a while it settled and we thought it had finally calmed down. But then we realized that it never moved once from its perch. Never ate or played. Nothing. The next day I found it with its head in its bowel of water. It drowned itself. Then I bought myself two gerbils that we're supposed to be both girls. By the end of the week I had seventeen babies. I sold them all in the end."

"Some luck you have." Sonic smiled frailly at him.

To quickly iron out the subject, Chris said, "we need to give you a bath. Your fur still smells like a smoky exhaust!"

It had been two days since the epic explosion and the failure of another of Eggman's tactical ploys that had ended badly. "I wonder if Eggman is thinking up something else."

"Don't think about him. You need to concentrate on getting better!"

"One day he might find out where we are. Then you will all be in danger."

Chris looked at him, unconvinced. "Eggman has no idea, and the frustration will probably make him angry!" He knew his childish disposition annoyed the hedgehog sometimes, but he couldn't help himself. He was only young, after all. "Then he'll make mistakes and lose interest after awhile. Bit like me and my homework!"

"But with me out of action we could be in trouble."

"We have Tails and Amy. Even Knuckles if we can get a hold of him!"

"Just... j-just give me one more day... then I'll be back on my feet to fight him..."

Chris shook his head. The first morning after the 'accident,' Sonic had excused himself from the lounge after a long sleep. With his tummy securely bandaged, he went into the kitchen for a glass of water on wobbly legs. Not having to worry about school, (Grampa had advised him to take the day off in case Eggman saw it fit to attack again), Chris went into the bathroom to get ready for a shower. Tails had come running for him not much later when Chris had nothing but a towel wrapped around his middle with the showerhead streaming out hot water. Sonic had collapsed in the kitchen, a broken glass of spilled water by his twitching hand. His lungs were locked in endless, unforgiving episodes of violent coughs. He couldn't even move, both exhausted and weak.

Trying not to panic, Chuck got the thin hedgehog sitting up, rubbing his chest to help him breathe. Sonic was then sick all down himself and the kitchen floor. "Chris, Tails!" Chuck snapped at them, "grab a towel and a blanket! Now!"

Things just went from bad to worse. After getting what Chuck had requested, and with a blanket wrapped around the hedgehog, Sonic went into a convulsion in the older man's arms. Just like that with no prior warning. Despite Chuck remembering first aid when he was younger, it was all very different when they were trying to treat a tiny blue hedgehog. Panicking, Chuck gathered the animal into his arms and carried him into the lounge. They got the hearth going, and knowing that warmth was good, they sat with Sonic by the blazing fireplace. With an old ventilation apparatus taken from the attic from Chris's dad's collection of unwanted memorabilia, they fitted it roughly over his muzzle. Though it was several sizes too big, with a fresh oxygen tank attached (and far from the hearth because of its flammable risks) Sonic still gained its benefit. The first couple of seizures passed and they all sat quietly. Demoralized and deeply upset.

When the others awoke later that morning, Chuck felt it right to explain the situation to them, despite the grief it would cause. And indeed it did.

"Ohmygoodgod!" Amy cried, bunching her little fists up, red in the face. Cheeks wet and saturated with tears. "We have to get him to a hospital!"

"We should." Chuck agreed with a fervent nod, "however, hospitals treat human patients. What he would technically require is a vet outpost. But again, they treat normal household pets; say the common cat or dog. They do not know his requirements or biology. They'd be in the dark while trying to treat him. We know Sonic more than anybody else."

"Besides," Tails added sorrowfully, "I've done my research. Sonic must have had more than 800 ppm (parts per million) of concentration from the carbon monoxide. Common side effects are dizziness, nausea, convulsions, confusion and a period of unconsciousness. Breathing in even little amounts of carbon monoxide can lead to hypoxic injury. I know how bad this looks, but it's a good thing he stopped breathing during the initial explosion, otherwise he would have breathed in more."

"What does this mean?" She shouted at the kitson. Her anger was a comforting protection against sadness and confusion. It made her feel stronger, while she broke down inside.

"He's okay for now," Chuck continued for the fox, "but the major concern now is what the later effects will be for him. Carbon monoxide poisoning can create delayed neurological manifestations. This could affect his intellectual functions and give him memory loss, trouble walking. As we've already seen, acute poisoning delivers seizures, even severe shock."

"You aren't helping to make me feel better!" Amy yelled, her voice positively shrieking.

Cream was hiding round the doorway and partially out of sight. Either Amy's open madness was keeping her away, or because of Sonic's condition.

"We'll set up a cot," Chuck said, looking at them each in turn, "get a drip into his bloodstream and lay a heater blanket underneath him. So far his breathing is steady and that much is good."

With Ella making the hot water bottles, the set up a cot by Christopher's bed with all thing necessary. Sliding the bars down, they placed Sonic on the bed and covered him up with thick, soft blankets. The hedgehog surfaced through his coma for about fifteen seconds, mumbling and coughing. His diluted green eyes didn't see them when they tried to get his attention. He limply flopped back against the pillow, out cold.

"Shouldn't we get a doctor instead?" Tails asked. Chris, too weak for words, sat by the cot wringing his hands.

"I don't think it's a good idea." Chuck replied wearily. "We've done what is recommended already. We've given him warmth and clean oxygen. What I'm worried about is if the doctor overdoses him on some drug. His system can't take anymore."

"We need Knuckles!" Tails cried out, making them all jump. "I'll ride in the X-Tornado and bring him here!"

"Would he honestly know what to do?" Cream shyly asked.

Tails shrugged. "I sure hope so. But I'm gonna have to find him first. He could be anywhere."

The decision was agreed by all of them, and Tails hurried out to find the elusive echidna. And so the first day passed.

On the second morning Sonic was conscious, but these bouts lasted only an hour or so before he dropped back into darkness. He was able to keep up conversation, but couldn't remember events, places or favourite things. Soon however, his breathing began to wheeze and the vomiting started again.

Angry for not knowing how to help him, Chris lowered the bars and brought him into his arms, careful not to upset the I.V line or the breathing tubes.

Just as the rain began to fall, the front door to the mansion was thrown open. Tails came pounding in, followed by a very muddy and wet echidna. Chuck came rushing down to meet them, knowing that time was now an expensive, precious thing.

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><p>TBC<p>

Dib07: I promise not to leave this for months before I update! Sorry for the cliff-hanger too and the shortness of the chapter!


	2. Chapter 2

Dib07: I am going to try and update this story much quicker than my earlier ones, and rating may go up in this fic. Again as a warning this fic contains angst and is based off of Sonic X that was originally inspired by the Sewer Search episode. I try to keep all of them in character.

Added note: All the herbs Knuckles mentions are all made up. They would have natural herbs on their own world to cure illnesses, and this must be rather tough for them when they are evidently stuck on Earth with strange, alien plants to contend with. Plus all of our normal medicines would be strange to them.

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><p><strong>Chapter 2: Trouble ahead<strong>

"What the hell happened?" Knuckles grunted as he followed the perplexed fox up the long winding stairs. He barely bothered to wipe his dirty boots on the indoor mat. Ella grumbled at him as he went through, grabbing a bucket and mop.

"Quickly! Up here!" Chuck yelled from the landing.

"Does Sonic spend his time here? In such a rich place?" The emerald guardian mused aloud, admiring the wallpaper, tapestries and paintings. Chris sure was well off. Not that he liked it. Knuckles preferred natural stone, the warm stench of soil. The overhanging sky. Nature itself.

Still leaving a neat muddy trail up the marble staircase, Knuckles followed the kitson with robust, confident strides.

"It was horrible, Knuckles!" Tails was saying who was a few steps ahead, "Eggman set a trap, and when Sonic attacked him, the machine just blew up, carpeting the place in gas and flame! Sonic got caught in the middle of it!"

"And Eggman?"

"We don't know! There was no sign of him! Honest!"

"Figures." _Finally_ reaching the top of the landing, Knuckles was surprised when he felt his legs actually ache from that climb. Well, the temple housing the Master Emerald had stairs, but those steps weren't as small or as narrow. "Humans." He muttered vacantly.

Following a hysterical kitson, the echidna sauntered into Christopher's room where Chuck and Chris were waiting for him. Despite Knux's guarded affront and brazen image, he wasn't prepared to see his arrogant blue friend wrapped in blankets in the boy's arms. At first he didn't know what to say. He just stood staring with his mouth wide open. Feet rooted to the spot.

"Knuckles!" Chuck's ardent voice brought him swimming back to reality, "we need your help!"

"Eggman did this?"

"Yes. Please help. Sonic may not have much time."

"Give him to me." The echidna, barely getting over the sway of panic, pushed past any weakness and recollected his confidence. The boy looked down at him.

"Be gentle with him." Chris knelt down, Sonic lovingly bundled tight. It was clear that Chris was reluctant to allow anyone else to take him.

"I will." He promised. Taking Sonic into his own arms, he rested his legs on the carpet and began to peel back the soft blankets. "I'm amazed actually. If you said he survived an explosion, he has hardly any heat damage. No burn or scorch marks."

"He was in the building quite a long time." Tails said at his shoulder, "Chris had to run in and get him out. He breathed in all the toxins, we believe."

"Well, it's easily done, considering his fast respiration rate." Once all the covers were removed, Knuckles noted the tight dressing round his abdomen. Carefully running a paw over Sonic's chest and pelvis for broken bones or anything abnormal, he said, "at home on our planet, there was plenty of natural medicine for common ailments and the like. The medicines are herbs that grew abundantly if you knew where to look. There was the _muleunka_ plant that healed damage to the lungs, the hyssops of Qun that neutralized any snake bite. The _typok_ that cured belly ache in seconds. But alas, we aren't on our home planet anymore. And so I cannot use natural medicine for him. Otherwise I would have known what to use."

"Can't we remedy this by getting herbs that closely resemble your ones?" Chris offered hopefully.

"You could try to find alternatives I suppose."

Gently laying Sonic down, Knuckles felt his throat and legs, pleased to find no broken bones and nothing else amiss. Everything problematic it seemed, was internal. However, when he came to physically examine his bandaged torso, his sensitive touch came across something unexpected and not altogether welcoming.

"What happened to his stomach?"

Chuck leaned forward, one hand scratching absently on his chin, "a bit of shrapnel I think skimmed him. It bled just a little."

"You don't understand," Knuckles growled at once, his frown deepening, "he still has some metal in there! It has to be taken out!"

"But I thought..."

"It doesn't matter what you thought! The piece of metal was obviously so fine and small that it must have gone through him like a bullet." At that he started cutting away at the gauze.

"Knux!" Tails protested, "are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure! Someone with small hands is going to have to remove it. It isn't in too deep, but my paws are too thick and bulky."

"I'll do it." Chris said quietly. They all stopped and looked at him as if he had coolly claimed that he was pregnant. "I'll do it." He repeated. "It's my fault Sonic's this way. You have no idea how guilty I feel. Please let me do this."

"It'll be real easy, kid." Knuckles said, violet eyes lucid and clear, "I'll guide you. It's the blood you're going to have to get past."

Chuck gripped Christopher's shoulder. "Are you sure about this, Chris?"

The boy nodded.

"You're going to need some equipment ready." The echidna reminded them, "pliers, a metal dish. And some painkillers for him."

Too frail to be put under even light anaesthetic, he was injected with a mild painkiller that didn't induce sleepiness. Rubbing the open wound with alcohol, this promoted the wound to bleed afresh. Taking up the pliers, Knuckles guided Chris towards the small hole. "I'm too rough," he was saying, "but you have a gentle, patient touch. Just go up a little... that's it. Now go in a little more." Knuckles encouraged him calmly, praising his tiny jerks of progress. "Just a little more, Chris. That's good. You should be able to feel it."

"What if I go in too deep and damage him more?"

"No, you're doing all right. I promise."

Groping round the hard splinter in a sea of blood, Chris latched on to it and gently, slowly pulled the pliers out. As soon as the tool came loose, Tails and Chuck pressed hard on the hedgehog's abdomen to ease the bleeding. In the grip of the pliers was the piece of metal. It was like a thin curly bit of wire that was so fine like paper. Only, if it had stayed in Sonic's body, it would have produced infection and sepsis.

Knuckles smiled reverently at him. "Good job, kid. Knew you could do it!"

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><p>It all felt incredibly surreal, as if Chris was watching his own life unfurl and not having any direct control over it. His terrible, aching guilt however, was repressed by his lifesaving act only a few short hours ago. Sonic's direful bit of metal shrapnel had been removed, and the deep cut stitched by Amy who had a way with the thread. She proclaimed with dignity and pride that she used to spend hours every night before bed knitting clothing either for neighbours, extra blankets for the winter, or more socks for Sonic. Of course, ever since coming to Earth, she hadn't the need to make or repair clothes, as they were now a common, ready accommodation. However, her skills were greatly rejoiced, and so she too had done a great part in helping.<p>

With Sonic sleeping on a specially made bed by the blazing hearth that consisted of a wide mattress coupled with pillows and blankets, they left him snuggled by the fire. He was still firmly hooked up to the oxygen apparatus and drip to support his body.

"So, this all happened the day before yesterday? I'm confused." Knuckles left the cooling cup of tea on the table as he made himself at home in one of the plush living room chairs. The cushions were made out of silk and he had to be careful not to get his claws snagged up in them.

"It happened on Thursday," Tails had already recounted the tale a few times in order for Knuckles to keep up, "Eggman had been very quiet as of late. We haven't heard from him in weeks. Then this happened."

"Was it a new design?"

"No, not really. I think Sonic just got caught out. He does have this unfortunate habit of throwing himself into danger body first. Something like this was bound to happen."

Knuckles concerns were elsewhere. "Say if Eggman attacks again? I can take out a few robots, sure, but if something happens to me, then who'll help us?"

"Me! I have the X-Tornado!"

Amy came into the lounge looking dismal. "Cream and Cheese have just gone to bed. I had to lie, telling her that Sonic'll be fine."

"He will be, Amy." Chris told her. Meanwhile, Chuck was in the kitchen preparing some kind of supper with Ella. None of them were hungry, regardless of the strong cooking smells wafting from the other room.

Amy sat on a chair opposite to Knuckles. With a great sigh she leaned against the plush cushions, mulling over her thoughts. "Talk about bad luck." She said limply. "And Sonic is... or rather was, luck."

"Yeah, I thought he had it tattooed to his shoulder!" Knuckles tried to lightly joke. But his thin smile was drawn tight. "We wait until he gets better. It shouldn't take too long. Then we'll get Eggman back for this. Mark my words!"

"Is that all you can think of? Revenge?" Amy hissed.

"What better idea do you have?"

"Hey!" Tails cried between them, "let's not get angry. It doesn't help."

"Anger gives me strength." Knuckles declared solemnly, "something you critters will never understand!" He rose to get up. Knuckles was like the upper cuts he delivered. Short, fast and to the point. Once he had his mind made up, he was gone again, back into the folds of nature or wherever adventure took him. Chris rose with him and took out something small and red in his pocket. With quiet purpose, he delivered the object into the echidna's paw.

"It's a phone." The boy said, "I know you may not like or even understand it, but I can teach you while we head for the door. If I have any questions, I'd like you to help me."

"By calling me up on... this thing?"

Chris nodded bluntly.

Knuckles, ever the proud, do-it-alone type, was a bit taken back. Chris had Tails, Amy, Chuck and Cream for assistance. Yet the boy felt more confident in the Guardian's abilities. Maybe it was because of his experience? Not just on the field, but in medicine and wisdom?

"Okay." The Emerald Guardian agreed. "Just don't expect me to reply to text messages! My fingers are too big to punch in numbers!"

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><p>Angry and insulted, Doctor Eggman plopped himself in his hi-tech chair mulling over ireful thoughts and dark fantasies. His latest invention had been an utter failure and he couldn't perceive why. The robot had been a marvel of invention and classic defence – and was far superior to all previous models. In fact, it was built so well that Eggman had barely got out in time before the whole thing exploded. Luckily for him, he had an in-built ejection module into his robots to ensure his own safety. But despite the vigorous armour, weaponry and vitality, his arch nemesis had very rudely put an end to it like he had done to all his others before. The one thing Eggman's machines lacked was speed. Unable to outmanoeuvre the hedgehog, Eggman was forced to build designs using great defence and strength. Not his plans were mottled with defeat.<p>

"That blue rodent is invincible!" He grounded his fist into the desktop so much so that he swore he had just made a dent.

"Why not use the chaos emerald?" Bocoe suggested from behind him, hands folded on his hips in a very human-like fashion that befitted his personality. "You managed to find it just yesterday by accident near a toxic waste dump!"

"If I use it, it will only be snatched from me again!" The doctor spat from beneath his ginger moustache, "and then they'll have it! The weasels! Animals are supposed to be dim-witted! Dumb and senseless! Yet here I am, waging a war against them! It's not fair! If Sonic were out of the way, I'd win and take over the world in but a few days. Not even the government could stop me!"

"You're forgetting one thing." Came a sharp, authoritative female voice. Rogue the bat walked into the room, arms crossed in front of her chest, wings neatly folded. "That I got you that chaos emerald in return that you find me another two. That's all I'm asking."

"I never did understand you." Eggman barked bitterly, "chaos emeralds are pure, raw energy, yet you merely want a couple because they are pretty? Pah-lease!"

"I want my insurance against possible threats as much as you do." She returned, sounding a little hurt. "And my services don't come free. What I do with the chaos emeralds are none of your concern. On the other hand, you need my help."

"Only when it suits." He said, distrusting her to the fullest. She worked for the government when it suited her after all, making as many threats as neutral as possible, including himself and Shadow. She was like a bee, taking the nectar whenever possible but not helping the hive.

"You try too hard." She continued, taking a step forward, "you need to be more subtle. Get rid of your giant sized robots for smaller creations. And use the emerald!"

"I will use what I like!"

He turned away from her in his chair and contemplated the black screen in front of him. "Fine." She said, "I was only trying to help. After all, you owe me two emeralds."

"Yes, yes. Run along now."

She did so, silently. And was gone. It was strange of her to side with him on occasion and not Sonic. He wondered why. Had there been some calamity in the past that made the bat and the hedgehog seemingly ignore one another? Or was it merely for self-gain that made Rogue so independent?

He shrugged to himself. What did it matter? His one and only goal was to get rid of Sonic, and this had been a constant task for nearly twenty years.

"Decoe, Bocoe, get me those designs again on the 'Eggsecrator,' I want to change a few things."

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><p>TBC<p>

Dib07: I have never actually explored Eggman's character that well and never done his side of things, which makes it different for me. I always try to make him appear more evil as he was orginally intended. Please R & R!


	3. Chapter 3

**Dib07: **A kinda late update, and this one is another sad kinda one. I tried to keep it light, but it wasn't easy to write.

**DanceDream:** Dude, you give some of da best reviews eva! Sooo glad you are enjoying ma story! You seriously need a fanfiction account so that we can message each other! It's so easy ta use! It sucks that this is the only way I can communicate to you! This chapter is another tragic one, lol, and I know this update is a bit late, but I'm glad you kept bugging me to update! I need it! Yeah, Sonic is way too reserved in Sonic X! Your praise has made my entire week! Yeah, my words can be full of jargon sometimes, and I am flattered that you want to write like me! This chapter is in honour to you! (Whenever you get your own account, PM me!)

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><p><strong>Chapter 3 I'll be Right Here<strong>

"Please lemme go..." Though he did nothing but slump various times, he insisted he walk without help. So far he had made slow progress from the lounge and on towards the hallway – a good seven yards. Legs unable to take the strain of his body weight, he'd flop to the floor unceremoniously as if his bones were made out of jelly. Sometimes when he stood perfectly, legs shaking, his brain would seem to have a breakdown, and he'd be on the floor again in no time. Unable to see Sonic afflict himself this way, Chris had followed him hesitantly, hands just behind him in case he fell backwards. After trying to walk, Sonic fell into his supportive hands.

"Gotta see if I can run..." The hedgehog's luscious green eyes were glassy and dim. His breathing without the succour of the apparatus was jerky.

"Sonic, you can't! Don't even try!"

For long, tangled moments, Sonic sat in Chris's hands like a doll snapped free from its strings without knowing how to move. Shakily he rose a hand and pointed at the far window above the lee of white sofas. "What... what is that?"

Chris followed the vague direction his finger was pointing, but all he could see was the vase on the windowsill and a framed picture. "What's what?"

"That thing? Standing there... staring at us..."

Chris shook his head. "There's no one there. It's just a window."

"It's... it's right there!"

Chris picked him up and cupped his socked feet under his left arm to cradle him close. With a disjointed sigh, he brought him back to the hearth, thus upsetting Sonic's hard-won, demented progress towards the cold, open hallway.

"If only you hadn't attacked Eggman," the boy said wistfully, more to himself than the confused, sick hog, "I know you needed to, and maybe you should've attacked him. But I wish you hadn't have gone all the way, and that meant you wouldn't have got caught in the explosion."

"Wha – what ya talking about, buddy?" His words often came out garbled, making little to no sense. But Chris could understand him beneath the delirium of his own slurred speech. "What explosion? Eggman? Is... is he h-here?"

As soon as Chris put him down on the warm mattress, Sonic tried to crawl off it again. His legs flopped over the side as if the commands sent by his brain were only half received. Chris gently rolled him back on the bedding and sat him up using the many plush pillows. Tucking in the blankets over his legs and stomach, the boy picked up a bowl and spoon. Knuckles and Tails had recommended feeding the hedgehog warm oatmeal and sugary water to drink. Both of which were easy on the stomach, since all Sonic had ever done so far was vomit.

Despite the snug nest of blankets, the blue hero was already trying to wriggle out.

_This is hard work._ He thought in exasperation. "Tails! I need you in here!"

The orange kitson hurried into the lounge at once, his beady eyes wide in panic. "Everything okay?"

"I just need you to hold Sonic while I feed him. He keeps trying to get out of bed. He's only going to hurt himself!"

"Sorry I wasn't here," Tails exclaimed rather sheepishly as he made himself comfortable beside a confused hedgehog, "I was doing some research on one of Chuck's computers about carbon monoxide poisoning."

"Any good?"

"Well, it's all bad news so far. But I have a suggestion."

"Okay, bear with me one moment. We have to feed him. He hasn't eaten in days."

"Ready when you are."

Sonic drowsily looked from Tails, to Chris as if he had never met them before in his life. "Why are you keeping m-me here?"

"We're just trying to feed you," Chris scooped up a small spoonful of oatmeal and directed it towards Sonic's mouth, "then you can have some more sleep after a good dose of medicine."

Despite his overall condition and lurching fatigue, he still attempted to struggle against the kitson. His legs fidgeted nervously while Chris managed to get two spoonfuls into him. Tails picked up the glass of sugary water hoping that he'd drink from it. Shivering and moaning as if he was under dutiful torture, Sonic tried to curl up in his blankets. To avoid getting prickled, Tails had to let go.

"We're not doing very well, are we?" The boy admitted sadly. "Has he ever been ill before?"

"Not quite like this." Tails put the glass back down on the side and twirled his thumbs together in thought. "I know what Knux would do, and that would be to force food down him, regardless of his protests. But that's not very fair."

Chris managed to get a few more spoonfuls of oatmeal down him, including two teaspoons of cough medicine. Exhausted, Sonic dropped off to sleep against his feather pillows.

"So," Chris said, sitting back while watching his blue friend doze peacefully, "what were you going to suggest?"

"Suggest?" Tails looked confused for a few seconds, then memory kicked in and he said fervently, "oh yes! I remember! If we have a chaos emerald, then we can produce a ring!"

"So?" Chris asked, frowning.

"So, we give the ring to Sonic! He'll absorb the energy! It'll make him stronger!"

"What a great idea!" Chris smiled at this revelation, "all we need is a chaos emerald!"

"Yup!"

"I better text Knuckles! See if he has a chaos emerald!"

Setting up for the night, Chris sent the echidna the text on his bright blue phone. Chuck waved him a 'goodnight,' and Amy briefly visited him in a perpetual state of woe. His reassurances did nothing for her, and so she went to bed red eyed.

After getting changed into his pyjamas, Chris helped Ella move Sonic back into the cot, making sure the heater blanket was on and the apparatus was on a full tank of oxygen. "I don't like him being this still..." She was muttering to herself, "is not right..."

"I think we made progress today, Ella. I got some food down him and Tails has a really good idea of getting a power ring for him! I just know things will work out!"

"For his sake, I hope they do." She patted the little sleeping hog on the head before tucking the blankets right up to his chin. "Goodnight, the both of you."

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><p>That night, Chris dreamed. It took him far away from his bed and from his room. He dreamed of Eggman laughing. The rivets of his madness seemed to lunge everywhere. There was no escape.<p>

Melting free from the sticky darkness shone an exuberant chaos emerald. Its shiny, opaque surface glittered a jealous green. The sight of it was invitingly intoxicating. Chris reached out for it, goaded by its pulsating energy. When his hand enclosed over its solid surface, the emerald turned into a ruby blade in his hand. Like the emerald, this dagger was boundless with energy. It made him want to run with it as his guardian. With this dagger, nothing could harm him. Nothing.

"Chris!"

Some creature reared out at him from the malign darkness. Terrified, Chris turned round sharply and slashed at the air. Blood droplets filled the air like rain.

"Chris!"

Christopher shot up in bed, breathing heavily. His skin tugged and pulled on the inside of his pyjamas from the cold sweat that had been building while he tossed and turned in the spree of nightmares. He looked down at his hands in the soft glow of the moonlight; expecting blood to be lathering them. There was nothing there. The words however, were not part of his dream at all. It was the hedgehog from the cot, quietly crying his name over and over. "Chris... Chris..."

His head was still half asleep. Was he dreaming?

Woozy and droopy, Chris slipped down from his bed and glanced at the LED alarm clock posted on the nightstand. It read 12:31am.

Rubbing his eyes, Chris shuffled over to the cot and placed both hands on the rails. "Sonic? You okay?"

"C-Chris..." His whole body was shaking under the many protective quilts. Waking up a little more, Chris flicked on the light switch, bathing the whole room in color. He pulled the rails down and rubbed Sonic's trembling back.

"What's wrong? Do you want some water? Wanna use the bathroom?"

Squirming, shaking, Sonic eased himself up on all fours, head low. Like a cat suffering from fur balls, he began to cough and heave. Acting fast despite being half asleep, Chris unhooked the plastic mask just as Sonic vomited heavily all over his clean pillows.

"Chris..." His watery voice was down to sparse whimpers. His hand went to his throat as a barrage of heavy coughs convulsed his lungs.

"Do you want me to get help?"

The bedroom door creaked open. Tails peered in, startled when he saw what was happening. He ran in just as Chris was easing a very sick Sonic out of his cot. Coughing and feverish, Sonic lashed out in his arms.

"Put him on the floor!" Tails came over, mouth open wide. "What's going on?"

"I don't know! He just woke up like this!"

Grabbing a few spare blankets that hadn't been soiled, Tails made Sonic a bit more comfortable on the floor.

"Easy, Sonic." Tails wrapped an arm round his hot shoulder and squeezed his hand with the other. "Get it all out. That's it. Nearly there."

A little while later, after changing the blankets, they put him back in the cot now that the hedgehog had gone back to sleep.

"So what do we do now?" The boy's question hung in the air. "Tails?" He looked down at the kitson who had curled up on the floor, ears low and floppy. Tears were spilling down his chin in shimmering crystal drops. "Tails? You okay?" He came forwards, finding it painful to hear Tails cry.

"I'm sorry... I've been k-keeping it in... but I've been so worried! Ever since he collapsed on the kitchen floor... I just froze! None of this seems r-real!" At that he burst into tears. Chris felt the corners of his own eyes sting with teardrops too.

"Hey, he'll be okay! We'll stick to the original plan, get an emerald and maybe use half of the ring's power on him, with Knuckles sharing the other half!" Parting from the weeping fox, Chris kept himself busy by removing the saturated blankets and soppy wet pillows. He didn't cry... because he knew that if he started... he'd never stop.

* * *

><p>"Well, so far so good. His blood pressure isn't dropping nearly so irregularly and his breathing, though on the weak side, wasn't as bad as last night." Chuck hung against the doorframe, looking into the darkened room where Sonic lay sleeping under the soft light of a new dawn.<p>

"What do we do?" Tails asked worriedly.

"We hang back, see what happens."

Just then, the phone rang. Annoyed at having being interrupted (especially at this early hour), Chris ran across the landing and into the upstairs office with the others and answered it from its cradle with a brusque flick of his wrist. "Hello?"

"Chris, it's your father. How are things?"

_Great, his father of all people, at this time._

He could have made his excuses, said he was busy and slotted the pearly white phone back onto its cradle, but that wasn't him. He couldn't just ignore his own father.

"Fine dad. How's work?"

Sighing irritably, Tails went to grab a soda from the fridge downstairs, unhappy and unable to relax.

"Say, Tails, do these look good to you?" He turned round to find that it was Amy who was posing the question. In her arms was a superb collection of small fitting pyjamas. Many were in either blue or red.

"What are you doing up this early?" He asked.

"You think I could sleep with Sonic in the state he is in? _Pu_h-lease! Well, what do you think?" The undertone of her voice was gravelled with impatience, so it was in the fox's best interests to satisfy her.

"They look good, really good! They'll help him against the cold, no prob!"

"Why can't someone just sleep with him?" She asked, a little perplexed.

"He may not like that Amy. He may be sick, but he still has some dignity left. Besides, he sleeps with like, a gazillion hot water bottles that I change every few hours."

"You get up in the middle of the night?"

"Of course! He is my brother after all."

There was a shout from upstairs. It was the sound of Chris's voice. Before they had time to ponder, the boy came rushing down the stairs to greet them, phone still wedged in his hand. "My dad is impossible!" He said, breathing hard.

"Why, what's going on, Chris?"

"I told him all about Sonic. About the explosion, the monoxide poisoning and everything! And you know what my dad said? He told me to stay away from Sonic in case he passed some kind of cold onto me!"

"Is your dad clinically insane?" Amy asked, "of course you can't get sick from him, Chris! Are all humans this... this mental?"

Rolling his eyes, Tails went back upstairs with a carton of orange juice to maybe try and tempt his brother to drink some. The victim C would do wonders for his deliberated body. He strolled into the room, happy to spend some time with him, when he noticed Chris's little window wide open, the curtains flapping in a cool breeze.

The cot lay empty. There was no sign of a little blue hedgehog.

"Sonic!"

* * *

><p>Dib07: Please R&amp;R!<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

Dib07: Oh geez, talk about a late, LATE update! Sorry guys and gals, was not my intention! I honestly forgot about this story, and this update was all thanks to DanceDream who reminded me. Urm, can someone maybe buy a boot-kicker that can kick me every time I forget to update? You know, the one with the added spikes on it? All jokes aside, I sure hope that you are still reading this and still enjoy it. Please let me know what you think via reviews or comments! And I aim to reply to everyone personally! BTW the reviews I received on previous chapters have been gorgeous! Thank you for your support!

**Last note: Don't, whatever you do, skip the first part of this chapter, or I'll eat you up! Yom, yom! Use whatever willpower you have! Yes, I'm looking at you! And you!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4: Panic<strong>

"Finally! Ooh at last! At long, long last!" His impatience was over. Frustration thrown aside. Anger tossed into a faraway discard pile where it could be forgotten.

Dr. Eggman overlooked his new invention that had taken him mere days to complete with the help of his fellow robots, Decoe and Bocoe.

It was called the Eggsecrator and was designed in the shape of a rather nimble, giant tortoise. His main control pod was built into the top shell, and thus allowed him to have a 360 degree view of the battle field, and since Sonic moved so fast, ultimate viewing was everything.

The Eggsecrator's head ejected lazars from its mouth, and where the emerald too was stored was in its brain compartment, and thus where all the wires and tubes could suckle from its power and energize the robot. What had been his main inspiration was of course; defence. And tortoises were an epiphany for him to replicate. They were full of sturdy, monstrous power. Of course, it weakness lay in receiving strength. It could topple over. It could be cut down by the legs, but Sonic did not have that kind of strength, and thus Eggman was confident.

"I painted it!" Bocoe was saying in the control room in HQ where all the monitors surveyed the busy city streets and office buildings where people worked day and night, "I gave it the beauty a robot deserves!"

"Looks pink to me." Decoe couldn't help but point out.

"No it isn't! It's cherry red!"

"Pink."

"Cherry red."

"Pink!"

"Oh will you two shut up!" Eggman came in crunching a BigMac wrapper in his hand and wiping his beard with a greasy hand, "the color makes no difference. If it were up to me, I'd paint the damn thing black to go with my heart."

"Very touching, Doctor." Decoe said with a complimentary nod.

"Now all we have to do is to find..." Dr. Eggman was cut off when a panel on the ceiling above them was pushed aside to allow someone entry. They all stood back, modestly shocked to have been invaded so easily. Rouge the bat landed gracefully from the gap in the high ceiling and sent them all a hard stare. "Why didn't you trip my alarms?" He cried angrily.

"Because I ripped the gear box. It's not nice trying to keep me out. I thought we had a deal?"

"I make no deals with animals, last of all you." Eggman said with a long sneer.

"But... but I gave you a chaos emerald!" She said, her confident cracking just a little. But Eggman saw it, and smiled. Having any advantage made his day.

"You honestly believe I'd waste my time finding and giving two to you?" He said, looking her up and down, "I wouldn't even send Bokkun down to the local jewellers to buy you petty gold and silver."

Rouge's fur stuck out on end, her wings beefing up, making her look incredibly big for someone once smooth and lithe, "you traitor!"

"Me?" He said in a shrill voice, "now don't be so mean! I could say the same to you! Helping the government and leaving your animal fuzzies over humans!"

"I'll... I'll tell Sonic about your location!" She threatened from where she stood, "I'll tell him everything!"

"Go to hell, little bat, and fly away." He turned slightly and pressed a button on his big console. A small sentry gun came shooting out from the ceiling and instantly picked up on her bio signature. The turret whined as the nozzle geared towards her. Knowing that she had outstayed her welcome, she pelted through the gap in the ceiling to get away. The sentry gun retracted and Eggman relaxed against the console. "Don't you just love superiority?" He said to no one in particular.

Just as Bocoe was about to sate him with a reply, Bokkun exploded into the room with furious energy.

"What is this? My place is not for grand openings!" Eggman shouted.

"But I have news!" Bokkun said, disheartened.

"What news?"

"Well, I was flying over to the Thorndyke place... you know... I think I saw that hedgehog!..."

"Where is their house located you buffoon?"

"I don't know!" Bokkun replied, "I just flew there!"

"Argh, you need fixing! Badly! But right now I do not have time! Bocoe, Decoe, alert all stations! We're going to find the location! Bokkun, you'd best guide me!" He growled.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Holy Mother of Mary!" Chuck saw the empty bedroom and then frantically searched the room, hands groping for blankets, clothes and chairs, throwing them aside in the hopes of finding a fallen, bewildered hedgehog. The worst part was that Sonic was delirious. Brain oxygen starved, with loss of memory. He was not safe alone.

"Who should have been watching him?" He said as Tails helped him search.

"I'll look outside!" Chris said, none of them taking responsibility to answer.

"You don't seriously think he would have gone out _there_?" Chuck demanded, pointing at the open window, "he's too weak!"

The boy shrugged, looking just as pale and as flustered as he did. "Grampa, please!"

"Okay. Tails, Amy and Cream," he said, turning to look at their anxious faces, "look in all the rooms. He may have been thirsty and gone to look for something to drink. If you find him, make sure he's still breathing! If he isn't, find me outside! Chris, I'm coming with you!"

Tails leapt across the room using his twin tails as a brief lift of flight and poked his head out of the open bedroom window, eyes full of tears. "Sonic!" He screamed, "Sonic!" He knew he shouldn't panic, but that was just how he felt. Hopeless and lost. The bedroom window overlooked the patio, and the ground floor roof below the window. If Sonic had got out this way, he would have landed on the roof, only to slip down across the tiles and land on the patio. But there was no blood and no signs of disturbance on the ground. Across the patio however was the open garage where his X-Tornado was kept.

"I wonder..." He tried to calm himself and left the window. He looked down at the cot to see blue spines lining the soft, plush quilts. Knuckles would get here soon, and if he found out what had happened, he'd literally go berserk on them, as they would get the blame.

Facing the window again, Tails slipped through the gap and gracefully propelled himself downwards.

Amy and Cream meanwhile raced throughout the rooms, calling and shouting whilst overturning furniture.

Chris and Chuck sprinted outside, trying to look everywhere at once. They saw Tails land just outside the garage door. "Tails!" Chuck shouted, "I thought I told you to look inside!"

"I think I know where he went!" The kitson shouted back, "get over here!"

"Why?"

"There's blue spines all over the place!"

"Holy...!" The two humans moved towards the young fox, livid with fear. Upon reaching the door of the garage, Chuck slammed his hand down on the button that opened the rest of the sliding door, as it was only open enough to reveal a two foot gap. As the door opened, Tails went down on his hands and knees, trying to see into the darkness. There were many slumped forms in there. Old boxes, tool kits, lumps of forgotten machinery, spare parts. Oil drums.

"Sonic!" He shouted into the miasma of dust and darkness.

There came no reply.

The door opened higher, allowing a wash of spring light to invade the quiet, dull sanctuary of the garage. Sure enough, a dusty blue hog lay on his side on the cold concrete, a ring of fallen boxes all over and around him. Frightened, Tails chucked them off his inert form in ardent haste, tears streaming from his eyes.

Thinking fast, Chuck pulled out an old, woolly blanket full of holes from the top shelf and wrapped it around the hedgehog. Then he dipped a finger against his throat and then down to his chest to feel it moving as he breathed. "It's okay. He's alive."

Tails slumped to his knees, cold relief flushing through him.

"But what was he trying to do?" Chris asked them both. Chuck gathered the unconscious hedgehog into his arms, rubbing his body up and down against the blanket to warm him up.

Tails wiped at his eyes. "He keeps a secret stash of things here. He likes them in the garage, more private I suppose. It's in one of these boxes." Except, they were all over the floor. Luckily only the soft ones had hit the hog as he tried doing god-knows-what. Perhaps, in his mad, befuddled state, he had tried to get at his belongings, and couldn't remember which one, thus had knocked them all off the bottom shelf where he could reach them on all fours.

"So he crawled here?" Chris scratched his head.

"All the way here."

The child rummaged through the boxes in turn as quick as he could while Chuck walked out into the open sunshine, still rubbing as much warmth as he could into Sonic's thin, cold body. He was on his way inside.

Tails grabbed a box and turned it right-side up, spilling CD's, magazines, headphones and cookie wrappers onto the floor. Amongst it all lay a single, unused power ring.

"So _that_ was what he had been after!"

"Yeah, right before he fainted." Tails said, picking it up.

Chris, overwhelmed with curiosity, took it off him, but not unkindly. "Let's give it to him!"

"No. I'm glad he didn't use it. That amount of raw energy will hurt him. We have to wait for Knuckles. He'll tell us what to do. Let's go, we need to help Chuck."

XXXXXXX

Sonic meanwhile, had long scrapes on his knees from where he had been crawling. They would not stop bleeding.

Chris held onto the ring, and Tails looked at him seriously, "be careful with that, and don't think about it. You might activate it by accident, so I suggest you put it on the table."

Chris nodded as they entered the house. "Is it the only one you have?"

"Yes. The only one in reserve in case of emergencies, like this one. He used to do that kind of thing back home, and didn't know he had one kept hidden. So I guess him leaving the house... was an odd blessing."

Chuck came to them and opened the door, leaving Sonic deposited on the bath mat in the bathroom wrapped in towels. "I think we may need to call a vet." He told them.

* * *

><p><strong>Dib07: It must be so hard not to think about using a power ring! If Chris used it by accident, they'd be screwed royally!<strong>

**Anyways, don't worry this story has all been planned out! And kick me when you want updating! See you next time!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Dib07: LOL, I've just been kicked! Anyways, loyal readers, here is the next instalment. Enjoy!**

**DanceDream: You are waaay too awesome for me! Here's your next update, though it isn't much. Must say I enjoyed writing Sonic this chapter. Very unusual for me to write him in such a way. **

**My real reply to you DanceDream is in Panacea Chapter 2, which I will upload hopefully Friday night, or Saturday at the latest. So come check it out, if you dare! *evil laughter*! So don't forget to read my message on it! Oh yeah!**

**Lolol Thank you everyone! I enjoyed writing this chapter very much!**

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Knuckles: I am SUPER MAN! The hero in this story! (Pretty much), ahaha! Taste my emeralds of succulent sustenance and nourishment! Breathe in my furry essence of charm and wisdom!

Chris: I don't want hedgehogs anymore, because all they do is **CENSORED**

Sonic: *arms folded* I'm suing everybody. 'Nuff said.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**Chapter 5:**

"Right, where is he?" Knuckles slammed the door open with his boot, nostrils flaring. "I am so wasting my time! I have a Master Emerald to feed, water and mother everyday! Yet here I am wiping the nose of a hedgehog! I am not a nurse!"

Tails who had been awaiting his imminent arrival, grabbed him by the arm and dragged him across the marble flooring in the hallway and on towards the lounge a few rooms down. "He has a power ring! He had been hoarding it like a ferret, and we really need your help!"

"Help to do what? You guys can give him the ring!"

"It's not that simple, and you know it!"

Knuckles rolled his eyes.

He was taken into the living room whereupon he met Chris with an armful of fresh blankets under his arm. In the other hand he held the power ring. Its golden glow shimmered and flashed in the dull light of the room like a soft candle. Its sides as smooth as marble.

Without further ado, he handed the power ring to the bemused echidna. "We need you to use half of it on him, as we agreed over the phone," he said, "that'll get his strength back."

"It would indeed. Just as well too. We have no emeralds yet. Well, take me to him."

Not wishing to hold the echidna up any longer, Chris led him upstairs with Tails following. The house was quiet even though it was only evening. There was no sign of Ella or Mr. Tanaka.

"They're asleep," Chris explained, "including my grandpa. They've all been looking after Sonic."

"That's sweet." He replied sardonically, fiddling and playing with the ring in his huge paw. "This is the last time I'm coming out unless I start getting paid."

"If this works, you won't need to worry about coming back." Tails replied, somewhat chastened by Knuckles' dry comments and lack of feeling.

Sonic was once again in the cot in Chris's room, the window bolted shut and the curtains drawn to provide enough darkness to induce natural sleep with minimal disturbance. All business, Knuckles flicked on the light switch and pounded over to the cot like an android.

"Still using the apparatus? Ugly thing." He sniped, lifting up some of the breathing tubes with his paw in mild curiosity and revulsion. He overlooked Sonic's features. He slept in his usual fetal position, snuggled on his side, ears sagging. Knuckles was not happy. "He's weaker." He summarised instantly. His confident, one-second conclusion made Chris and Tails jump. Then he got rid of the breathing mask like a mad maid.

"Well, he did leave the house crawling." Tails explained softly, voice cracking. "We cleaned up his shins... they were bleeding badly. Please Knuckles... use the..."

"Why isn't he getting better? You have everything here! Good clothes! Food! A huge house! Yet here he is, getting sicker!"

"Knuckles, it's not what you think. Honest." Tails defended , "we made a mistake last night and Chris gave Sonic milk to drink without telling me first." He knew he shouldn't have admitted this, what with Knux being so angry, but in order to help his brother, he had to tell Knuckles everything, "he's been violently sick ever since."

"No wonder. He's lactose-intolerant! You fools! Killing him with MILK!" He stood beside the cot and checked Sonic over. Despite the rough look about him and clumsy appearance, he sure was gentle examining the tiny animal. Unconscious and feverish, Sonic was none the wiser. But it was his limpness that most upset the echidna.

"His shock is almost irreversible." Knuckles explained tightly, "Holy emeralds! Okay, ring it is."

"Do you know what you're doing?" Chris stated worriedly from the other side of the cot.

Knuckles bared his gossamer fangs at him, brow creased. However he bit his tongue, knowing that saying something now would only make him explode right there and then, showering Sonic in blood and guts in the process. No, he could not lose his temper now...

Sliding the gold band into Sonic's limp palm, Knuckles clamped down on the end at the other end and used his willpower to activate dormant power. Power that had fallen from the emeralds themselves. This would restore Sonic's vitality in one single plunge.

A bright flash of iridescent gold spilled out between Knuckles and Sonic in a curtain of yellows. Chris and Tails threw their hands up to protect their eyes. However, Knuckles looked on, eyes riveted on Sonic's inert body. This was what he had been reduced to for protecting a little boy. Though Sonic would never regret imploring such a decision, Knuckles grunted at the stupidity.

Dying to know if it was helping, Tails tried not to scrunch his eyes shut and peered into the blazing fire of gold.

After another moment, the gold vanished. The light faded and the ring disintegrated.

Then, miracle of miracles, Sonic opened his dull emerald eyes. Knuckles held his breath, worried that any sudden movements might break the spell.

As if waking from a deep coma, Sonic was unusually slow upon rousing. He blinked wearily several times, his chest still moving unnaturally as if he were fumbling for breath. Tails went to rush over to embrace him, but Knuckles struck his arm out, forcing the kitson back.

"But..." Tails whimpered out. It was almost like physical pain... being held back from his brother when he clearly needed help.

Gathering strength, or so it hopefully seemed, Sonic moved beneath his blankets, limbs finding a new purpose. His cheeks flushed a rosy color, replacing the unfortunate white of snow. Still blinking languidly, breathing awkward, he went to sit up, hands trying to find their way out of the blankets. His limbs, eager for action, didn't quite know where to go, and so he slumped back several times, hands unaccustomed for any coordination as if he was a freshly born hoglet.

"Sonic?" Knuckles asked gently, forcing his voice to remain low and calm. He took a brave step forwards. The seconds dragged...

Sonic looked up, ears swerving in all directions as if he was surrounded by noise and confusion from all corners of the universe. "Hullo?"

Knuckles stooped down to his level, noses almost touching. "Hello back."

Sonic droopily looked up, eyes unfocused. When his vision finally aligned itself and he was no longer seeing double, he flinched back, bringing his hands upward to protect his chest. "W-What...?" He acted as though he was looking upon the woes of a monster.

Sensing as well as seeing the problem unfolding, Knuckles sprung forth and took him into his arms. "Easy, Blue. It's me, Knuckles. Everything's okay. Shhh. It's me. I'm not going to hurt you."

"Is he okay?" Tails was shivering in worry.

"He's coming out of his shock. His brain's a little slow. At the moment I don't think he can see us very well. All he might be seeing is colors and hear loud voices. It should only be temporary."

To prove this statement, he drew back a little, a comforting paw rubbing Sonic's back quills up and down in a slow, reassuring motion to stab back any panic flooding the hedgehog's system. Sonic glanced at his small audience with dawning comprehension.

"Where'd you guys come from?" He asked, voice weak and whispery, but otherwise much more than it once was.

"We haven't gone anywhere." Knuckles informed him patiently. He went to feel Sonic's forehead when the hedgehog drew back, confused and still out of it. "It's okay. I'm just feeling for a temperature. You were caught in an explosion from Eggman's machine. You're lucky to be alive. Chris saved your furry little butt."

"Ya did?" Sonic said, weepy eyes looking from the kitson, to Chris, then to the giant red echidna.

"W-Why?"

"Don't you remember?" Chris asked, "you saved me! Eggman was attacking! And the whole thing... blew up!"

"Well, are you okay?" Sonic asked back, unblinking.

"Yeah! I'm fine!"

"Then why are you all s-staring at me?" He suddenly stretched and Knuckles jumped back so that he wouldn't be lacerated by his raising quills.

"Sonic!" Pushing down the fearful barrier of his own insecurity, Tails launched into the air and crashed into the blue hog with tight, squeezing hugs. "You're back!"

"Sure am, pal! Though the room keeps s-spinning!"

"Kamikaze hedgehogs." Knuckles growled. "Wasting my time. Good thing we're all right here for you, otherwise who knows what might have happened. And we still gotta pay Eggman back for knocking you out. Though I doubt you'll be able to do it."

"Ah, screw you, Knux. I can do just about anything. Except making pancakes. They always burn on me." Sonic replied with a cough.

"You should be thanking Knuckles!" Tails advised him, "he saved you. He used a power ring."

"Urm, thanks Knuckles." Sonic said, looking uncomfortable. Then he turned his attention back to his brother, "uh, little room, buddy? Ah thanks! Need to get down! I really need to pee!"

Chris hurried forwards. "You're going to walk?"

"Yeah!" Sonic spilled out of bed and hit the floor with wooden legs. It was like watching a foal being born for the first time that needed to use its new legs. He wobbled here and there, crashing into the nightstand or walking into the wardrobe in random, crazy angles. Tails went to catch him, but the hedgehog shook his head. "I'm 16. I can walk really well. I'll get there before you do."

Chris rolled his eyes and slammed a hand to his forehead. "Knuckles!"

"Holy cakes!" Knuckles took Sonic's hand and led him forwards. "The bathroom is this way, and NOT through the wall!"

"Ooh Dowa..."

"Now what?" Knuckles roared, showing his proud teeth.

"I... I think I wet myself."

"What?"

Sonic pivoted round the puddle as if trying to profoundly grasp what he was looking at. "Ah man, the floor's all wet."

Tails chuckled though much of it was forced. "Here, let me take him."

"I don't trust you both of you together, with him out of whack." Knuckles grumbled. "Chris, fetch me a mop."

XXXXX

"So, that's all you remember?" Tails asked.

"Yup. That about sums it up."

"Stop and sit down. You can't walk." He guided Sonic down to the floor outside the bathroom after having used it. Sonic obeyed the order and didn't try to rise again.

"Chris... saved me?" He asked.

"Yeah. He couldn't just leave you there, could he? And that ring helped wonders. It's healed your shins, and your stomach wound." As if to prove it, he unwrapped the bandages to lay eyes on a furry torso with no marks. "It's been an emotional roller coaster, Sonic. We've really missed you."

"Ah come on! Like I could be gone that l-long!"

Tails cocked his head at him. "I hope that smoke didn't do any permanent damage to your brain. I might have to gather some material and check it out myself."

"You'd enjoy that, wouldn't you?" He relaxed against the cold wall, then perked up again, "hey, did I just pee on Chris's floorboards?"

The kitson nodded, delighted to see his old self again. "I was so worried about you, Sonic. We really thought you wouldn't wake up. That you'd leave us..."

"Hey." Sonic rose a hand and ruffled the kitson's head roughly. "I'll be right here. I promise. I'm not going anywhere. I feel bad for letting you all d-down like t-this. I owe Chris. And I owe Eggman a really good hard butt-kicking."

"You can barely walk. And your eyes keep losing their focus."

Sonic rubbed his eyes. "Feels like I've been drinking all n-night."

Chris came up towards them with a blanket, Knuckles directly behind the child. Sonic jolted upright, lost his balance and hit the floor again.

"Hullo?" He mumbled at them, ears flattening against his skull.

"We're going to weigh you, Sonic." Chris bundled him up in the blanket, "Knuckles suggested it. Then we can give you the right supplements and know how much food to fatten you up with."

"But Eggman!" He wriggled and fought when Chris picked him up. "I can walk!"

Knuckles bit his lip. "Sonic, you seriously need some manners along with a new brain."

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Dib07: Kinda short again, I know, Lolz. Thanks for all your reviews!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Dib07: Hiya all! Hope you enjoy! Here it is, as promised! The waits won't be nearly so long between chapters AT ALL. In fact, this story now has my full attention at last, and it was good for the break, because I have fresh ideas. So yeah! That's about it!**

**Chapter 6 :**

It was an unusually hot day as the afternoon sun beat down upon the land in hazy streams of fiery, lazy heat. To lay down the suffocating warmth, Chris was running around spraying Tails and Amy with his water gun X98. Tails was getting him back of course, ducking, weaving and dodging at every second, and getting the human boy profoundly drenched in the process. Tails was sopping wet himself, having suffered several blasts from Thorndyke's high-powered water gun that must have at least cost his parents an easy $80. Amy, pooped and thirsty, laid off the fight to have a sit down with Cream at her picnic site a few twenty yards further down the long, wide garden. All of them were having a relaxing time in the heat. There was still no sign of Eggman. Bokkun, simple though he was, machine or not, would not lead the Doctor here. at least, not yet. Bokkun was a mad little thing that related to the term; crazy. And so, they remained safe, with Sonic ever on the alert just in case. Either way, Eggman needed this time off too, the duration of peace enabling him to rebuild and polish his designs with no disturbances.

Several days had passed since Sonic's exposure to the ring. And Knuckles, ever helpful, did not stay. The Master Emerald was his beck and call, and so left with nothing but a wave. "It's not _my_ job to look after hedgehogs." He had said bitterly the day he left. "Sonic, take better care of yourself. Eggman can do with losing you. We can't."

Sonic watched Chris and Tails play out on the lawn while he was high and safe in the tree overlooking the neat and tidy garden. His eyes focused on their interloping shadows as the human and kitson moved, their screams and shouts of laughter shrieking into the sky as water detonated against them.

He stretched out his left leg, running the muscles taut as he straightened it. Then he lifted up his right and proceeded to do it to that one when he lost his balance. He felt the branch shift from under his, leaving him entirely. The ground beneath raced upwards to snare him. And he fell head first.

With a grunt and a whimper, he hit the hard earth and after the first few seconds of disgruntled shock, he managed to look upwards at the tree responsible for throwing him off. It stood innocently beside him like it always had. The light shining through the leaves like diamonds. Now that he had been ejected from its branches, a small gathering of birds alighted among the leaves at once, chirping out their profuse songs.

"Sonic, hey, are you okay?" Tails asked, dripping wet, "we saw you fall."

"Wasn't that far." He curtly nodded at them both, giving them an easy, svelte smile. "Accident."

Chris shrugged. "Maybe it's safer on the roof. You should give that a try."

"Yeah." Sheepishly grinning, Sonic gave them both a wink and walked back towards the house, which was a fair distance away. Anything to get away from their silly water games.

XXX

"He still walks... crooked." Tails confessed as he and Christopher went to continue their game after seeing Sonic off. He wobbled back towards the house like a toddler taking his first steps, hands splayed out for balance as he skirted to the left or too far to the right when really he should have been walking in a straight line.

"He'll get better, I'm sure." Chris unscrewed the cap at the water tank and began to fill it back up again from the water hose, "maybe it's because once the effects of the ring leave him, he feels weaker without it?"

"Or maybe it hurts to walk on one side?" They shook their heads at each other. "I dunno, Chris. I'm sure he'll be fine. Just give him a few more days."

However, Sonic's behaviour did grow more odd as the day progressed, and Christopher was a witness to all of it, simply because he was worried. Having taken a week out of school, the boy had more than enough time to keep an eye on Sonic while Tails was making adjustments to the X-Tornado.

It was the very same evening that Sonic had fallen out of the tree. This time he sat in the back garden on the porch where the moths were attracted by the lights shining through the windows. Sonic had sat there for three hours doing nothing else but staring across the lawn and at the dark shape of the trees beyond.

"Sonic," he said, gripping an unopened soda can as he stepped out the back door, tired of looking at him from the kitchen window, "what's wrong?"

Sonic's ears did not move to acknowledge his presence. The little hog's attention remained focused purely on the garden as the light faded and the midges began to gather and swarm in the dusky air.

Chris hesitated, emotionally hurt and bewildered. Sonic had never ignored him before. Ever.

The boy was tempted to go back inside again. Back into the splendid warmth of the house and be gone from the garden. From the insect-infested twilight noon. And from Sonic. He rested his hand on the kitchen door handle, looking over at the inert hedgehog. Was Sonic ignoring him because he was to blame for the explosion of all things? Because Chris had chosen a shortcut home? The boy was puzzled. Since when had Sonic started blaming others? And shifted the fault away from oneself?

"I may not be perfect, Sonic." Chris began timidly. Worriedly. Sonic was his best friend, his exotic pet animal to a degree. "But I'm sorry. I really am. But you brought Eggman here. What else could I do? I'm just a kid."

Blue ears moved faintly, as if trying to catch a distant sound on the breeze. His nose was lifted upwards, sniffing the air. Suddenly he caught the scent and snapped round, evidently startled to see Chris standing not far behind him.

"Oh, hey, buddy. Didn't see you there. What are you doing standing at the door?"

"But... but I said... and you just..."

Sonic stared at him, perplexed. "Are you all right? You look upset."

"I'm not! Didn't you hear me just now? I said..." But he stopped himself as Sonic's confusion grew wider on his face. His expressions were always so easy to read, and were open and honest all the time. Maybe Chris had spoken too softly to be heard, and the hedgehog hadn't caught a word of it. "Never mind." The boy said, not sure how he should continue. "What are you doing out here?"

"Enjoying the evening. Wanna talk? You look really worried, bud. Homework getting ya down?"

"I'm having time off school, remember?" To divert the subject off himself, he asked, "have you tried running yet?"

"I will." He sat with his legs straight on the grass, and he tapped his sneakers together in playful rhythm to nothing in particular. "I can't now. Too dark. But I will."

Chris sat with him, the chilled soda in his hands still. It got colder as the evening lengthened. Still, Sonic found the bottom end of the garden fascinating. Rarely did his eyes stray from it. The boy sat and pondered his next move. It now seemed hard to address Sonic. He felt uncomfortable talking about anything. Sonic seemed... different. Ever so slightly. And Chris couldn't put his finger on it.

The blue blur sighed and tore his eyes away from the lawn. "Don't worry. I'll get Eggman for ya. I promise. He could have killed you. Leading you into a trap like that. Hurting me is one thing, but hurting my friends is unacceptable. I'll show that lousy eggy who's boss." He got up as if he was no longer invited to stay. He gave a long stretch, and Chris looked on in wonder as quills flexed for an instant as Sonic strained his tired muscles. "Lots of things to do tomorrow. Come on, Chris."

The boy got up and followed Sonic back inside. "You want to eat first before we get ready for bed?"

"Nah, I feel sick. Water will do me just fine though."

Chris regarded his friend scout round for a glass in one of the lower cupboards set especially for them, since they were all that much shorter and could rarely reach for the higher selves, even with a stool.

Grabbing a glass, Sonic filled it up using the faucet and stepped away from the stool at the sink. "So, another evening of homework tonight?"

"I... I already told you, Sonic, I don't have school. I quit for a week."

"Quit for a week? How come?"

Chris rolled his eyes, almost finding the discussion humorous. He popped his can open.

The splitting noise did not sit well with Sonic at all. As soon as the can fizzed open, Sonic dropped his glass of water on the same instant as if the noise was an explosion that should have sent the room plummeting down around them. The glass hit the floor, sending up shards of glass that rippled out while mini waves of water splashed along the kitchen tiles. Panicked, Sonic stood where he was, eyes as large as donuts. But it was not fear in his eyes and in his stance. It was one of quickened, thirsty anger. Anger that only came to Sonic in the heat of a mad, losing battle. When the prey animal became the predator if only for a short time as he defended those he cared about.

Chris stood frozen, can still in his hands as he watched Sonic breathe in and out in rough, short gasps. Eventually the hedgehog seemed to sober up, his bright green eyes surveying the mess that he had made. "Oops. How did that happen? One second it's in my hand, and then it's all over the floor? Did I space out?"

Chris shuffled backwards, suddenly fearful. Sonic had become something else for a moment. Something he couldn't define or make sense of.

Noticing the boy's look of turmoil, the hedgehog clumsily made his approach. "Hey, it's okay. I'll clear it up. Did that glass tumbler mean something to you?"

Chris shook his head. "Stay away from me, Sonic. I can't... I gotta go." He left the soda on the counter and dashed past the confused, stricken animal and ran all the way up to his room. Once in there, he slammed the door shut and locked it from the inside. As soon as he had left Sonic, he felt guilty and a bit mean. But as of late, Sonic did not seem like himself at all. The hedgehog had ignored him. Stared at the far end of the lawn for the evening. And acted aggressively when the soda can had popped open. Sonic had never been aggressive in the house before. Not when an enemy was nowhere to be found.

It didn't make sense.

Chris lay outstretched in his bed, throwing a rubber ball at the ceiling directly above him. It made a satisfying thump every time it hit the low ceiling, and came bouncing back into his hand so that he could repeat the ritual. Often his eyes trailed over to the empty cot beside him. The cot where Sonic had lain... unconscious for days. Where he had been coughing and vomiting to no end. Where they thought they might just lose him. Chris closed his eyes against those memories, yet couldn't help but see Sonic's expression in the kitchen. The glow of teeth. The startled, angry look that had so galvanised Christopher with shock.

Sonic. Aggression. Never went hand in hand.

The ball thumped hard against the ceiling. Had any of the others noticed this too?

He heard someone walking across the landing outside his bedroom door. Alert and nervous, the boy sat up, clutching the ball tightly in his hand. His premonition was correct. There came a gentle knock at the door.

"Chris? It's Tails and Amy. Is Sonic in there?"

"Urm... no." He slipped off the bed and chucked the ball on the floor. It bounced once and then rolled under his bed. Keeping on a brave, there's-nothing-troubling-me face, Chris unlocked the door and turned the knob. Tails looked up at him peculiarly.

"You_ lock_ the door?" Amy spoke for him, "since when did you start doing that?"

"I was... I was doing homework and didn't want to be disturbed." Chris muttered lamely, knowing how bad his own excuse sounded.

Tails gave him a nonplussed look that was slightly exaggerated. But he didn't linger on Chris's hastily pasted lie which he could tell straight away. All animals had the uncanny ability to see lies very clearly. "Well, anyway, me and Amy can't find him. He's supposed to stay in or near the house because he's still sore from the accident in the warehouse. He's not allowed to leave in case he collapses somewhere."

"And we can't find that little weasel!" Amy ended for him.

"Have you checked on the roof?" He asked.

"Yup. Several times. And all the trees in the vicinity." Tails answered in losing patience, "and the garage, the basement. Everywhere! So we assumed he'd be in here."

"Does it matter?" Chris looked at them both in turn, trying to get them to see how silly it was for them to be getting all worked up over nothing. "He's fine. He's probably taken off somewhere and gone for some privacy."

"He doesn't do that even when he's healthy!" Tails sounded cross now, previous patience up in smoke, "yeah, he might run off during the day, but never at night! It's not like him!" Chris remained in the doorway, doubly surprised to see Tails angry too. It was genuine, worried anger. Amy too was disappointed with Chris's answer. "Are you going to help? Or are you going back to do your homework?" The kitson had by now folded his arms, the foreign emotion of anger and impatience deepening on his face and voice. Tails too had never been quite this annoyed before. And this further worried Chris.

The mansion was a big house. With Ella helping, they made short work of looking through all the rooms, constantly calling for Sonic. They checked in the pantry, the wine cellar, the basement, the attic. Amy and Cream instigated their search outside with a flashlight each, and searched the grounds with Cheese walking alongside them. The roof remained vacant.

Tails went down on his hands and knees, checking under the beds and in the laundry basket. Even behind the boiler in the airing cupboard where the warmth might have invited a small, unhealthy hedgehog. But there was still no sign of him. Even Chris felt long shards of dread enter his stomach with every passing moment and every time he heard someone call the hedgehog's name. Because no reply ever met that cry. Tails became frantic. He started looking in the kitchen cupboards like some delusional compulsive patient. "Sonic? Where the heck are you? You want a screwdriver up your rear? You have thirty seconds to come out! This isn't a game!"

And still there was no sign of the blue animal.

"He had to have gone out, little ones." Ella came back up the stone path outside, turning her flashlight off before re-entering the kitchen. "There is no sign of him anywhere. If he had been anywhere inside the house, he would have heard us by now."

Tails rubbed at his eyes. Refusing to give up when all else looked bleak. The tears were starting to come. "We have to find him! We are not sleeping until we find him! He wouldn't give up on me!"

"But where else do we search?" Woken by the noise and the current investigation of the house, Chuck had come down in his PJs and had decided to help, if only by overseeing the project and not having the energy to physically participate. "Tails, you know Sonic the most. Where does he prefer to go when he sleeps?"

"Rooftops! Trees!"

"Tails, calm down. You won't be able to help us by being so upset." His voice was like pure reason. Low, solid and down-to-earth. They were all in the kitchen now, including Ella, Cream, Cheese and Amy. "Think, Tails. Where would he mostly feel safe? Would a vulnerable animal like him really want to sleep in open places like rooftops and trees?" The kitson looked doubly confused. "If he's ever been ill before, what does he do?"

"He sleeps under his bed. But... but we've... I've checked under _every_ single bed! I've checked the seats in the X-Tornado! He's not there! He's gone! I know he has!"

"We'll instigate one more search." Chuck said to all of them, trying to raise the tiny shred of hope that Tails clung onto before he lost it completely, "thoroughly. Each of you grab a frying pan or a plastic cup and make some noise as you call for him with it. Bash it hard. He may be in a deep sleep somewhere." This tactic too seemed over the top, but they resigned themselves to it, picked up their kitchen instruments and began again. Tails strayed behind Chris, looking dejected and miserable. Together they walked into the warm lounge where the fire was but a low hum in the cosy hearth. The sofas had been moved countless times to see if they could spy upon a creature behind them, but no such luck.

"We'll call Sam Speed tomorrow morning." Chris reassured him with a soft, caring smile, even if Tails didn't look up at him to see it, "he'll find him. I'm sure of it."

"I'm not a very good brother." Tails admonished suddenly, flatly refusing to hear Chris's suggestion, "I didn't keep an eye on him. But I was too busy with my plane. I thought everything would get better, you know?"

"Tails..."

Chuck tiptoed in behind them, flashlight in his hands. It had been turned off. He gave them each a sly wink. "You wanna see something really adorable before you go and kill him? I recommend a bazooka for the job if you do!"

Tails' eyes lit up, his limp twin tails flourishing back up in their normal, regal position. "You... y-you f-f-found him?" He stammered in his rising excitement. Excitement that he didn't want to be crushed.

"Just don't disturb or scare him. He's asleep pretty good. You two can be the first to know before I go and tell the others."

He led them from the living room back into the kitchen again where moments before they had had their brief meeting. "In there." And Chuck pointed with his flashlight at the washing machine.

The door was partially closed and it was dark inside, like a rabbit hole. Tails and Christopher bent down, the kitson opening the door. Inside Sonic had curled up, his back to them while his lay, snuggled in blankets and a cushion to help soften the undulations of the machine. The side of his chest rose very slowly and deeply. Like Chuck had explained, he was fast asleep and dead to the world.

"How come he didn't hear us call for him?" Tails whispered, "and why a washing machine?"

"We haven't used this washing machine for ages," Chuck explained, "we have a super-powered one instead that Ella uses in the laundry room. This one we were going to throw out, so the water smells must have faded a little. I guess he likes the way it acts like a hole. But him not being able to hear us... even now is a concern. Do you think he's going deaf?"

Chris bit his lip, remembering those few hours before. When Sonic seemed to not be able to hear him. The boy assuming that he was simply being ignored.

"I don't think so," Tails stepped away from Sonic's new den in fear of disturbing him, "he listened to me fine this morning."

"I guess we're worrying for nothing." Chuck put his hands on his hips. "Chris? Stop looking so glum and get the others, or else they'll still be searching by noon tomorrow."

TBC


	7. Chapter 7

**Dib07: **Thank you all for the reviews, it really keeps me going more than you think. This is to be my last update for awhile, as Generations comes out at last in Europe tomorrow, that's if Amazon delivers it on time. Grrr! Anyway, this is one of the story's longer chapters and really opens up to what is next in store.

**DanceDream: **Lol! Really? Thank you! Yeah, loved the opening too. I try to up the detail everywhere I can, and this chapter took me a little while longer to write to keep it polished and exciting. Well, maybe Sonic can surprise you yet? He is after all hard to keep down, as you'll find out soon! :) Lol aggressive! All will be explained! Lols Dark Sonic! I must say, I do prefer that version to Super Sonic.

Anyways, please enjoy this update and thank you so much for everything! I hope you get to play Generations soon too! Or do you already have it or are planning to get it? Speak to you soon!

**Chapter 7:**

It was another humid day where the ground was even dryer than straw. Chris poured himself out some juice, eyes flittering over to the kitchen tiles were the glass and water had ebbed all over the place the evening before. Amy and Cream, always side by side, were going out for a day trip with Ella and they waved Chris off as they left. Chris watched them leave with their baskets of strawberries, cream and crackers. Should he tell them? Was it wrong to keep the information to himself about Sonic's aggression? Were they possibly at risk? And should they even leave with Eggman at large?

Meanwhile, Sonic had pulled himself out of the old washing machine sometime after dawn, sleepy and cramped. Chuck had come down to make himself some coffee and shook his head at the merging hedgehog. "I was intending to throw that old thing out, and now you've made yourself a bed in it. I was going to use the 20 bucks from it to bet this evening."

xxx

later that morning, Tails, concerned himself, did not devote time to his plane. He remained in the back garden with Chuck so that he could watch Sonic and his peculiar antics. Chris, kicking a stone out in front of him, sauntered up to the kitson with his head down. "Tails, I need to talk to you about something. It's to do with Sonic."

"Yeah. His weird behaviour?"

"You noticed?"

"Look." He pointed at the hedgehog who was half way down the garden. He was on his knees, digging copiously in the full heat of the morning sun. Showers of dirt were churned up between his legs as he busied himself on this task as if it were vital – his profound ambition in life. His sneakers and gloves were stained with new, heart-earth as he churned deeper. Ripping out roots and stones.

"The rabbits will love him!" Tails said with a mild chuckle. "I think he's looking for China, what do you think? Still, watching him makes _me_ hot and thirsty. Let's say we offer him a drink?"

"Tails, last night..." It came out in a rush of words. He almost stuttered. He just had to tell him. Now. Before someone got hurt. The very idea of Sonic hurting his own friends was ludicrous, sure, but was it possible? Had Eggman somehow managed to alter Sonic? What was it? And how? "Sonic dropped a glass of water and well... got mad. He looked really angry, Tails. I..."

"Angry?"

"Yeah! He just dropped the glass when I opened my can of soda!"

"That's it?"

"Don't you understand? Would any of us stand a chance if he came at us..."

Tails lifted his hand up, an urgent sign for Chris to literally shut up. "This is my brother we're talking about." The kitson looked up at him, somewhat astonished to having heard the boy's concern. "I've done things to make him mad by accident before."

"Y-You have?"

"Yeah. Siblings can't help it. I ate his last chilli-dog once; hit him between the legs by accident when we used to sleep together when I was really small. All I did was lift my knee up when I shifted beside him, and left him in agony for about five minutes. When I didn't realize how scared he was of water, I kinda threw a water balloon at him for a bit of fun. I did all those things, Chris. And he never once got really mad. Not even close. He just laughs it all off, whether I hurt him or not. I don't think he'd even truly hurt Eggman either once I think about it."

"Tails, I got scared!"

The kitson rolled his eyes. "Next time he ever gets that way, go up to him and push him over. He'll let you. A kitten is more lethal than he is." He gazed up at the human again. "Come on, I'll show you how angry he can get."

Chris wanted to shout that he was aggressive, _not_ angry. But the word aggressive was such a strong one to use. He felt guilty just thinking it.

The grass wasn't spongy and lush under their feet as they traversed across the garden towards Sonic's digging spot. It was brittle, dry and flat. The sprinklers hadn't been turned on yet. Their timed cycle started at dusk so that the grass had time to recover overnight. Sonic however didn't seem to cherish the virgin landscape. No. He was digging it up.

"Whatcha doing?" Tails came right up behind him, purposely grabbing hold of one of Sonic's smaller back quills to pry his attention away from his current objective, and to subtlety prove to Chris that this hedgehog was no monster.

Sonic was jerked backwards, and he fell onto the grass, eyes blinking in the harsh, stifling warmth of the sun. His cheeks, nose and chin was saturated in soil. His chest too was dirty while his fur was grimy and dribbling with sweat. He smelt awful.

"Oh, hey! An audience!" Sonic smiled, though much of that smile was just a reflexive response for being caught by surprise.

"You sure it's all right for you to be digging in this heat? It might frazzle your brain." Tails said humorously. "And why are you digging a hole?"

"Because I thought it would be cool! You want one too?"

"No thanks! Have you seen yourself lately? You look like you've been rolling in cow dung!"

Sonic nodded, ears attuning to Chris's sorry-looking face. "Hey, uh, sorry about last night. I promise to handle your things with much more care. Or you could just give me a small bucket to drink out of. Then I won't be able to break it!"

Chris looked on, mouth working but with no words being produced at the ready. Sonic's guilt was real and heartfelt. He honestly thought Chris was still upset over something as benign as a broken glass tumbler.

Tails looked on, confused and a little hurt that Chris wasn't replying. Tails' and Sonic's bond were simply so close, that an affront to one of them was an affront to both. Still, the kitson tried not to get too upset. He simply wasn't there last night to fully understand the situation. "Sonic, will you be going anywhere today?"

The hedgehog lifted his head up at the fox; his eyes still fleetingly glancing over at Chris every so often. "Should I be, bud?"

"No, not at all. I was just wondering."

Sonic looked back at his hole, then to his brother. "Okay."

"Okay...what?"

Sonic rose and briefly tried to shake the mud off his fur. Only so much of it sprayed Tails and Chris in a greasy, brown shower. Much of it remained on his sweaty body. To further rub the soil off him, Sonic bent into the dry grass and began to roll in it. Tails watched with mild amusement as his brother then drove his body through the grass like a shark. It still didn't erase the splodges of mud soiling his proud, blue fur, but it did make a rather funny brown streak through the jungle of grass.

As if in his own world, Sonic scooted back up again and started to jog. It was haphazardly at first, as he strayed too far into Tanaka's vegetable patch or almost keeled into the fence that made a ring around the compost heap. He stopped suddenly by a hedge as if short for breath.

Knowing Sonic all too well, and that the hedgehog's hesitation meant that he was gearing up, Tails started to run in the other direction, on towards the house without saying a word. Chris, a little muddled, chose to follow the fox rather than be stuck in the garden with a hedgehog he could no longer read. "Tails, where are you going?"

"The X-Tornado. He's going to go for it. If we don't hurry, we'll lose him. Injured or not, I'm sure he'll still break the speed limit that they have for cars."

Hurriedly, as if a sudden fire rushed behind them, they ran past the house and on towards the garage where the plane stood waiting for use. Tails and Chris strapped on their helmets and climbed into the seats.

"You sure he's going to run? It's been almost a week since he's done anything more than jog!" Chris exclaimed as he clicked on the seatbelt with shaking hands.

"Yeah. He hasn't exactly warmed himself up first. But if he can still run, he's back in the playing field."

Chris leaned back in the passenger seat. Speed was a good indicator of recovering health. If Sonic could run, then he was feeling much, much better or else the blue hedgehog wouldn't even be trying.

The plane's thirsty engine kick-started and Tails pressed on a few controls with adept precision. The summer heat had been docilely absorbed into the cockpit and passenger side, making the inner confines unbearably hot. As the plane began to move, Tails popped open the windshield to allow free blasts of air to scream down into their faces.

It did not take long to reach the skies. The plane; a heavy, cumbersome thing on land, became an aerial angel in the heavens. Adjusting the wing flaps and its trajectory, Tails plunged back towards the ground at an angle, hunting for a blue hedgehog.

He was easier to spot than first thought. Not far from the great, expanding gardens of Thorndyke territory, there was a pinprick of an animal heading north, towards open field and lonely country. And beyond that, hills and public woods.

Though Sonic was going quite fast, at least over fifty miles an hour, he did do these bizarre twists, turns and repeated circles. Tails lowered the plane down a little more, keeping an eye on the treetops as they brushed above them. He too discerned Sonic do an odd maze of intricate patterns on the ground, and this show of covering ground was a complete waste of energy. Why double back on yourself? Why the circles there weren't just repeated once or twice in the exact same shape, but five times?

Restlessly Sonic would randomly start performing another circle at least forty feet in diameter, just wide enough to keep himself from turning too steeply round at such speed. And he always did it to the left every single time.

"What is he doing?" Chris asked, "Practising how to dodge?"

This time Tails did not answer. His stomach clenched into knots. The ruffling wind above them could no longer be felt as the heat in his cheeks rose.

Round and round Sonic went; sometimes going back the way he had come as if all navigation had gone to hell or some inbuilt compass was leading him astray. He'd slow when he came across a little dry riverbed in the centre of some barren, harvested field, before performing corkscrews. Then the infamous circles. Some he performed eight times in a perfect sphere. It was almost as though he intended to litter the place with crop circles, even when this was clearly not Sonic's idea. And Sonic never once ran to the right. It was as if he couldn't.

After finally performing more useless circles that benefitted no one or anything, Sonic paused in the hot field, and bent over to vomit.

Tails set the nose of the plane down slightly as he made his descent.

"He did rather well, right?" Chris asked from the seat behind, "he can still run. Maybe he is just sore still? Or likes circles?"

A harmless joke or not, Tails did not reply. He swallowed back any response in case it may just be an angry one.

The plane settled down, sending up rotten bits of wood and twigs into the scorching air. Sonic looked up, heavy with sweat, one ear cocked towards them. He rubbed his mouth to wipe any trace of his breakfast but whether it was because of the heat or how he had made his own self dizzy, he bent back down again, throat and belly lurching up another delivery of bile.

Tails almost fell out of the cockpit once he ripped his seatbelt off. Throwing off his helmet, he jumped down onto the dry bed of the field and raced towards him, making short work of a thirty yard distance. He almost buckled over himself when he saw that his brother was still heaving his stomach contents up.

"Sonic, holy emeralds on fire, why did you keep going round in circles? Sit down! Or you'll fall!"

"Were you f-following me? I didn't hear your plane." He gestured languidly at them, as if he was trying to shoo them off. Chris however remained in the plane. He lurched forwards in the seat, harness still secured across his torso, eager to hear what they were saying.

"I can follow you. Since when were there rules that I couldn't?"

"It's okay dude... I'm fine. It's cool." He straightened, swallowing down sick and rubbing his face fastidiously to remove any traces of liquid. Only then did he check his surroundings around him, gazing about in puzzled dismay. "Erm, where are we?"

"Approximately four miles from home."

"Oh, just four miles? Felt like I've run for longer." He looked back at Tails, muddy quills bouncing in the strong sunlight. "Hey, you smell sweat and dirt?"

Tails nodded, smiling too. "Yeah. Come on, we're going back now. It's boiling out here. We'll go back, grab a drink and set the water hose on you!"

"Huh, in yer dreams, pal!"

The plane lifted off again, Tails using the field as a rough runway as they left the feverish fields.

Not trusting Sonic's poor balance, they made him sit at the back and not on the wing of the plane. But he didn't seem to mind. Instead he avidly gazed through the windshield, regarding the world below with fresh delight. "I can run!" He stated happily to himself. "I can run!"

XXX

"Here you go, brother." Tails handed Sonic a large mug of water with a few sprinkles of electrolyte added. After sponging himself down from the swimming pool, Sonic was both cooler and happier. Chuck helped lather his body in shampoo, massaging it into his grimy fur with plenty of cloths and a sponge.

"Honestly, digging in this heat." The old man was chuckling, "I'm surprised you didn't curl up and faint."

"I didn't really notice it, but thanks, Chuck. I can do the rest myself."

"I don't trust you. Just keep drinking, that's _your _job." He kneaded the last of the shampoo in, rubbing out any trace of mud with good, hard rubs. Giving him one last wipe over with the cloth over his closed eyelids and muzzle, Tails was given the go-ahead. The kitson turned on the spray on the hose to a gentle setting and washed the hedgehog off, giving him a good, cleansing shower.

Chris trundled over holding a fresh cool cup of orange juice in his hands. He was somewhat tempted to throw it down on the floor, and reveal to Chuck and Tails just how Sonic would react. But that him feel dirty. No. He'd try something else while Tails was around. But _what_ exactly he wasn't quite sure of. Yet.

The hose was turned off and Sonic rubbed himself with an extra soft towel as he walked away from the grimy puddle he had made, his strange gait still strong and pronounced.

"Here. Drink this." Chris lowered himself down and held the cup out towards the hedgehog.

Sonic looked at it with moderate suspicion. "What if I break it?" His voice was cool, calm and casual. There was no accusation there. Only dry curiosity.

"It won't matter. I promise."

"Okay, if you say so." He accepted the cup with a nod of appreciation, and then gulped the liquid down as though he was a desert survivor close to death. He drained the entire contents in seven seconds, gasping afterwards. "Hoo boy, that was good. Hit the spot. Thanks, dude."

Chris took it off him again, looking at him glumly. "That's okay. What are you going to do now?"

Sonic rose a hand to his forehead, rubbing it softly as he spoke. "Well, back to my digging of course! What else?"

"But we just bathed you."

"Well, I'll try and stay clean, how's that?"

XXX

They watched from the kitchen window. Out of sight and out of mind. Though Sonic may not have noticed whether they had been staring at him at the porch or standing directly at his flanks. Sonic seemed to have become veiled in a shield of silence when he had his back turned to them, or was busy n a new project. Blow a horn, and he might not hear it. It was almost as if his mind fell into a living stupor.

"Look, see? That is not normal behaviour." Chuck digressed, his bare arms folded across his front, "he's been digging for about an hour. Covered in muck again. Soon he'll hit the water pipes underneath the garden. He's made a hole plenty big enough for himself, yet he keeps going on, only to come out again to puke his gizzards out."

"And he walks funny." Tails added from the stool he stood upon to spy out the window. "I think the toxins in the smoke from the explosion have messed about with his co-ordination. I was hoping he'd get...better. But he isn't. We need professional help. I was going to build a machine to look inside his head, but I'm no physician. I wouldn't even know what to look for."

"Could he get better on his own?" Chuck said, keeping his eyes on the massive pile of dirt as it grew taller and taller beside the deep hole.

"There's been no sign of it happening."

They watched in morbid fascination as Sonic wriggled out as he normally did, shaking the mud off his fur like a dog but being unsuccessful. The dirt clung to his thinning body like dry paint. "Three, two," Chuck counted, "one..." On schedule, Sonic landed on all fours, heaving out vomit. This lasted five short moments before he brought a hand to his forehead. Perhaps he was feeling dizzy? Confused?

"Sam Speed has connections." Chuck was saying, a fixed, determined look on his face, "he'll know the best businesses going, even if they aren't around town. I don't trust vets, especially when we're dealing with you guys. You're too different. However, if Sam trusts a veterinary establishment, then I do too."

"What makes you think he'll know a good veterinary?" Tails leaned his elbow on the kitchen worktop, chin resting in the palm of his hand, lids drawn half way.

"Oh, I'm sure he will. I'll go and give him a call. Tails, bring Sonic inside before he goes back down the hole."

"Sonic won't like this new plan of yours..."

Chuck paused on his way out to the door. "Maybe it's something we should have done all along, even if it was just to get a second opinion. We handled it ourselves, and now I regret it. I don't care what Sonic thinks. We'll strap him down if we have to, though I doubt that will be necessary."

XXX

"Here."

Sonic looked past his headache at his younger brother leaning down towards him. A breeze shunted through, rifling the dead blades of grass if only for a single heartbeat. The hedgehog smelt water. Green pupils widening, he noticed the glass in the kitson's hands with triumph. He reached for it and guzzled it down without a word. But what the cup contained wasn't enough. He was still thirsty. It was like an undying lust. Something that couldn't be sated easily. The ache was too deep inside of him.

"Tails... more?"

"Yes, there's plenty more back inside. Come on, I'll give you a real bath this time, then you can sleep in Chris's room."

Sonic looked back at his tidy hole, feeling a deep wave of accomplishment. "Well, it is nearly done. It still isn't roomy enough, you know?"

"Why are you burrowing?"

He gave a shrug of indifference. "Guess it just feels... right? And it's fun. I could do it all day."

"So I noticed."

Gloves wet and sloppy in the heat from his sweat, Sonic crawled forwards once to get some momentum from being in a crouched position for too long. He felt something twinge angrily in his back once he got up, and spaced his feet wide enough apart to keep himself from meeting again with the floor.

"Do I really have to stop?" He teetered forwards, mesmerized by the way the grass seemed to sizzle and waver on the ground as though it were something living.

"Yeah. Take my hand. You're gonna fall. Copy my footsteps."

"You'll make_ me_ fall." But he did listen and he did try. He copied Tails' feet in a mirrored pattern as the young fox took the necessary steps back towards the mansion. "Tails, tell me...have you seen Eggman lately?"

"Well, no. I haven't left the house since you were injured in the explosion."

"Explosion?"

"Yeah. Remember? Eggman blew up, we haven't from him since, but knowing him he got out okay. Why?"

"I have to see him. I have to get him back for what he's done. He attacked Chris, and that's just wrong. The fight has always been between me and him. But he did something different that day. I do remember it now, bud. I have to see him and make him pay."

"You can't. You must rest. Chuck is taking you to an animal hospital as soon as he contacts Sam Speed."

"A-Animal hospital?"

"Yes!"

Sonic pulled away, his calm, appeasing self suddenly swinging into one of anxiety. "No. I'm fine! No hospital! They have needles, rough hands! Bad breath!"

"And how would you know?" Tails put his hands on his slender hips, looking at him tenderly. "How many horror films have you been watching with Chris?"

"Just eight!"

The kitson shook his head comically, his jutting length of hair on his head swinging delicately. Sonic stood there, watching and sweating. Ears craned forwards. "Sonic, you scared Chris yesterday. You scared him. What did you manage to do to achieve such a thing?"

"I broke his tumbler. He didn't like it."

"What else happened?"

"I heard an explosion." Sonic replied at once as if on autopilot. "It made me remember the warehouse. And I lost myself for a moment."

"You can recall that?"

"Yes!"

Tails sighed shakily and then looked at him squarely. Sonic gazed equally back at him with innocent open indifference. "Sonic, we're worried about you. You seem okay sometimes, and then you relapse completely. It has something to do with the toxins you breathed in. You may have some light or moderate brain damage, but we can't know for sure unless we get you examined by an official animal physician that also deals with human anatomy."

"Tails, I'm fine!"

"Then why are you digging holes in unbearable heat? Having memory relapses? Seemingly deaf then able to hear at other times? Something's not right! And your co-ordination is terrible!"

"I am going to no hospital! Once I defeat Eggman, then everything will be fixed!" There was anger in his voice and Tails wasn't keen on it. It rose in shrill levels then dissipated momentarily. Then again, it was normal for him to be angry once Sonic found that he was no longer in control, and was being forced to a hospital. For starters, Tails knew that Sonic did not like being touched by strangers. And for someone...a human...to physically probe into his body was more than Sonic could take, clearly.

"Brother..." Tails began again, softly this time, trying to ease some of his reassurance and comfort into his older sibling, "this is for the best. You've had severe poisoning. You must believe me. The fact that you don't seem to notice your own body changes is a concern. If you don't get help soon, I fear the damage will worsen, and perhaps be even irreversible."

"Tails, this is just another day. I'll overcome this. But I feel fine, if a little thirsty. And...muddy."

Sonic dutifully followed Tails across the grounds and back to the porch of the house. "I'm going to run you a bath." The kitson said, smiling weakly, "there's juice in the kitchen and use ice cubes. I'll be two minutes."

"Okay, dude." Sonic managed to tackle the step at the backdoor and stumbled in while Tails went upstairs to start the bath.

Minding the walls, doorways and statues (there were a billion things to avoid), Sonic opened the large, glossy white fridge door and grabbed the orange juice carton on one of the lower shelves by the packed vegetables. Choosing a paper cup this time, Sonic poured out the liquid, noticing how much it dribbled down the sides and out onto the table in a growing puddle of orange.

He set the cup to one side, and drank from the carton instead, downing all the contents in less than thirty seconds.

Drinking had never felt so good.

Carton empty, he threw it at the sink. His bad aim resulted in the orange box to fly too far upward, and thus hitting the frying pans hanging from their hooks above the window, causing them to clatter loudly together in angry symphony.

As he watched them clang and bash together, the shimmering metal made him remember Eggman once again. What had Tails made him wait for? Why was he in the kitchen? What purpose was required of him? For how long had he been standing here for?

He went back outside and headed for the garage, carefully balancing himself with his outstretched arms, because lately, Chris's path had got really wobbly as of late.

For once his mind was clear. Destination a resolute thing. He'd find Eggman and fry that madman. Sonic had to be here for everyone, and to protect them. Lately he had been failing at this simple job. No wonder Chris was angry. He hadn't got Eggman back for trying to attack a child. He had been wasting time here, at home.

Sonic climbed into the X-Tornado and strapped himself in using the seat harness. The controls looked back at him in mystifying secrecy. How long was it since he had piloted his own plane? But Tails had changed and remodelled it so often that actually, the original scope of it and its controls had changed too. Some distant memory nagged however, and he inserted a few commands with ample confidence, pressing on what he hoped was correct.

The control panel lit up. The emerald tracking system kicked in. And the windshield of the cockpit came down over him like jaws gently resting to a close. The engines spurted into violent, gleeful life.

Upon hearing his own plane, Tails looked out a bedroom window that overlooked the garage, a towel slung over one shoulder. He saw the plane move quickly up the runway, its jet engines curdling with hot, white flame. "SONIC!"

Shouting was useless. He'd never be able to hear him over the roar of the plane's ignition. Tails jumped out the window, towel falling from his body. His twin tails rotated together and he soared upwards as he headed towards the plane. But the aircraft was much too fast. Its nose lifted. The wing flaps realigned their new angle of trajectory, and the wheels left the tarmac. Before Tails had flown nine meters, Sonic had soared high and true into the sky, and roared away.

"_Sonic_!"

* * *

><p><strong>Dib07:<strong> Please, please review and tell me what you think! I really enjoyed writing this chapter and the next one after. Til next time!


	8. Chapter 8

**Dib07: CHECK IT OUT! FullRings did the MOST alluring, captivating picture inspired by chapter 6 of this story! For all those who wanna see, the link is at the top of my main profile page! The picture is a keeper! If you wanna see cute and hot and all-loved-up, go and see it noooooowwwwzzz! You are 100% guaranteed to MELT! Washing machines and hedgehogs ROCK! Excuse me while I glomp it some more! XD**

**Sonic197: **Thank you for your support! I love it that you love this story! Hope you enjoy this update! :)

**DanceDream:** But is he hurt beyond repair? You'll just have to find out! Thing is Sonic never wants his friends to worry about him or solve his own probelms. He flees away from their concern as naturally as breathing. On the face of it, Sonic is holding himself together but the mental aspects are worrying, because he does seem to be deteriorating. And the only thing that'll solve this is a medical expert.

Haha, you'll side with my brother there with Super Sonic! He loves Super Sonic! LOL! He prefers the gold fur coat from the blue!

**FullRings: **Where would I be without you? That picture: Awww! Lol! My eyes are glued to it! I am not kidding! I don't know how else to repay you for that amazing pic except free requests. The very least I can do right now is dedicate this chapter and many more to come for you! (One has already been dedicated for another special someone too! :) Lol, this fic is so loved by everyone! I am gonna faint from the awesome shock!) I hope you enjoy FullRings! The meat of this story is yet to come! XD LOLZ!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 8:<strong>

Tails ran to find Chuck and Chris. _He took the X-Tornado! He took the X-Tornado!_

'_Once I defeat Eggman, then everything will be fixed!'_

So rushed was he in his mad plight to find the humans, he tripped and fell. Angry that he wasn't thinking, he took off into the air. Sonic was not thinking right, at all. Nothing bespoke of normality. His behaviour was weird, what he said was weird. Sonic was never forgetful, compulsive about Eggman all of a sudden in a storm of revelation, or dug holes. Even when Tails went to brush his teeth a few nights before, he saw Sonic staring at a patch of carpet on the landing. Standing...and staring. Yet the carpet held nothing to fascinate anybody for anything.

And sleeping in washing machines...why was he sleeping in washing machines? And the fact that he had it all padded out with blankets too meant that it provided more of a permanent home. Why? Why, Sonic, why?

Chris had said that he got really angry in the kitchen for no due reason.

The deafness.

"Tails? I thought you had gone in your plane." Chuck peered down at him from the shadow of his straw hat. He used an old motor magazine as a fan to brush the heat off his face. "I just heard it take off."

"That was Sonic!" The kitson cried, landing on the ground. "He's taken it and I think he's off to find Eggman! He said something about fixing everything by going to see him! He isn't in a right state of mind, we have to find him!"

"Now slow down," the older man said. "You've been getting stressed lately because of him. Now take a breath and start again."

The fox flinched back at him, none too happy at Chuck's calm reaction. "But he's gone!"

"Does he know how to fly the plane?"

"Yes! Normally!"

"Okay." Chuck stopped fanning himself and for a while neither of them spoke. The quiet chirp of the crickets was all they heard. "Sonic has everything. The X-Tornado, the emerald tracker, speed. Does the plane have autopilot? Or course it does!" He answered for himself. "The plane will take him to the Doctor and he'll land fine. We don't know where Eggman is though, and we can't follow. Not yet."

"We will find..."

"The Government have been trying for months since Eggman's last escapade. And Sonic has our best bit of equipment."

"But Eggman'll..."

"I know." Chuck paused again in musing. Finally he added, "We'll use this time wisely. I'm getting Sam Speed on the line now. I'll find everything I need to know about this animal hospital, and if I feel that it's okay, then we're sending him straight there, appointment or not. Sonic will get back here. The plane has its own GPS system to take him back. The trip might just help him cool off or help reawaken whatever senses are left. For now, we need to get ready for when he comes back. I suggest strong restraints and a blindfold."

"I am so mad right now! I want to strangle my own brother!" Tails groped uselessly at the air, brows furrowed into fissures. "Did you just say...blindfold?"

"You want to get him to this hospital or not?"

Tails shook his head. "Yes!"

"Wait, _you_ have a tracker for the X-Tornado. Tails, think. Where did you leave it? We'll jump in my car and we'll follow it if you are still not happy. How about that? Then we'll leave Chris to take care of things from here." He dropped the magazine and felt for the car keys in his summer pants, but he turned up with nothing. "Must have left them inside..."

Tails thought hard for a moment while the summer heat seemed to make everything sweat. Even his gloves were moist and sticky. "Oh great." He exhaled in annoyed sarcasm when memory hit. "Yeah, I know where the tracker is."

"Well?"

"It's_ in_ the X-Tornado! I am going to _kill _him!"

XXX

His head hurt. He couldn't remember what the gearstick did or how to safely navigate the plane. He tried to find the button to activate the landing gears, of which he didn't need to waste his time doing. The wheels were already down and ready because he hadn't tucked them in anyway.

The buildings below lurched upwards in dangerous array. It was still the zenith of daytime, so the sunlight streaked off the windows of the buildings in striking flashes of color that stabbed into his vision like white swords. He must have been miles and miles above. It wasn't the highest he had ever been with Tails, but on his own, it was.

The engine ran smoothly beneath him like a purring tiger. The clouds, white and fluffy, always looked gentle and wispy from below. Like candyfloss. Only when he was going at the speed of Mach 1 this high up, the clouds turned into rocks, and they pounded into the metal and carbon fibres of Tails' plane like missiles that punched into its underbelly or nose in violent cadence.

The people below were smaller than ants. They carpeted the winding roads below and the cars were beetles. Beeping away or ignoring stop signs. Sometimes his stomach dropped for no reason, and many a time he felt very sick. The last thing he wanted to do was molest Tails' clean interior with fresh vomit.

At least the plane would cover distance in vast proportions. Already the emerald radar was signalling for something, and it wasn't based back at home. Sonic fought hard to strain away from muddled thoughts and upset confusion. Tried to focus on why he was here and what he was doing.

The radar was picking up not one, but two emeralds. All in one exact spot. It _had_ to be Eggman.

"I hav' to tell Eggman... He hurt... could have hurt...Chris... it's wrong. He went over the top that day. I have to tell him...have to...have to..."

He slammed on autopilot while he was still had the sense before it became muddled, and the plane lowered through the rolling clouds as it homed in towards the unique emerald signature. The sun was a brilliant oval of yellow gold, carpeting the solid blue sky in sheets of heavenly yellow. It jetted through the clouds, creating a silken effect. Sonic leaned back into the seat, admiring the stalwart beauty. It made his boiling anger abate somewhat, and it was only then that he realized how wet the seat was beneath him. He was sweating more. Yet it wasn't warm in the cabin. In fact it was mildly cool, enough to be able to wear a jacket over fur and still not get hot.

A red warning light kept flashing on the cabin overhead screen. '_Landing Gear in Operation.'_

"Yeah, yeah."

The plane sunk lower, leaving the atrophied clouds and entering course blue sky. The buildings became big pillars of manmade achievement once again. Office buildings looked like Lego blocks. Soon the plane's reflection could be seen as it flew over windows.

'_Destination approx. 1.5 miles.' _The message filtered across the screen. Even the letters wobbled. Tails should have done something about that. How was he supposed to read when even simple instructions convulsed before his very eyes?

The plane got closer to the ground. The nose dipped slightly every now and again. The buildings rose up, no longer small and insignificant but real, threatening giants that shadowed the cabin. The engine whirred appropriately, the jets stemming into weaker throws of energy as it prepared to land. A landing strip in the heart of the city was in fact a scrap yard with just enough yard space to land a plane. If you were an expert, that is.

Sonic thumbed off the autopilot and took the gear stick. He lurched against it, feeling it fight against him. "Turn left, turn left! Down, down!"

The X-Tornado lurched upward too violently; it's left wing not in balance with the rest of the aircraft. As its wheels squealed once on solid earth, the plane bounced back into the air again, and its left wing caught a pile of tall debris. If Sonic was in alignment, he would have missed it.

The hit brought the plane spinning round to the right. The wheels hit the ground at speed. Warnings were going off in the cabin like mini sirens. Sonic could not understand any of it. All he concentrated on was the windshield as he watched the world rush past him. Saw metal piles falling across the front of the plane. Saw a blossoming fire billow out from the left hand window.

The aircraft bounced again, its tail bringing up mounds of trash – the only thing slowing it down coupled with the applied brakes. Still it screeched sideways, finally crashing hard into the side of a building. The windshield cracked spasmodically, and hundreds of tendril cracked webs veneered the glass plate. Automatically, as programmed by Tails in an emergency upon ground level or low altitudes, the cockpit whirred open. One of the engines caught fire and something below the aircraft exploded, sending up a chute of black smoke into the air.

The sirens screaming at him in a chorus of panic, Sonic went to get out. But he couldn't move. Something was holding him back. Greasy, hot fear stabbed through him. The smoke, the fire. The warehouse! And he couldn't leave!

His brain reeled and he sat in the wet seat while the plane began to burn up around him. He slapped a hand to his mouth, the coughs returning full force. His lungs were still too sore from the previous incident, and they acted up straight away. _Can't breathe!_

_I can't get out!_

_It's happening! It's happening!_

Wildly he began to flip every control. The panel sparked and the buttons were red hot, forcing him to flinch away from it. _The radio!_ He thought wildly, happily! He went to grab it the small, black walkie talkie type thing but he couldn't remember how to use that either. This was turning into a nightmare. The black plastic box had three buttons below the ear piece. He pressed on one, and nothing happened. The second and third buttons produced the same result. He could hear no static or even a connection folding through.

A black demon flew through the ashy smoke as it folded and wrapped around Sonic's world. Tears from the smoke irritation ran down the hedgehog's eyes. His lungs were locked in permanent coughing pain. To breathe was impossible. His throat clenched and he vomited into the cockpit.

The small creature came into the open cabin like a fairy from hell. When Sonic looked up through the water in his eyes, he saw that it was Bokkun. The hedgehog was mesmerized by the sight as he squeaked with each difficult breath.

"What's the problem? Can't decide whether to get out or not? You suicidal or something?" The mini android asked, who was now perched on the smoking dash panel. "Want some help?"

Sonic leaned forwards, choking and hacking, unable to speak. Bokkun shrugged and jumped into the smoky cabin. He pressed on the centre of the release buckle in Sonic's seatbelt, and the straps were zipped away. He was free.

Rising, falling, then rising again, Sonic steered himself towards the side of the cockpit and lurched one leg over. His poor balance made him slip and he hurtled from the plane and onto concrete. He barely felt the crunching impact. All he was concerned about was the coughing. He couldn't get a break. He couldn't get past it. He needed air. The irritation kept bombarding him. _No escape... no escape..._

Grabbing hold of his hand, Bokkun dragged him across the concrete. Sonic allowed this unspoken reprieve as he watched the burning plane sail away. The smoke thinned in the air somewhat as his rear bumped over cracks in the floor, or hurtful pebbles and bits of twisted wire. But the squeaky coughing continued. His eye sight doubled and the fringes of his vision were feathered in red. At last his body stopped sliding across floor and he slumped down, coughing and breathing, but mostly just coughing.

As he lay there, trying to drink in slithers of air that rasped inside his small lungs in aching wheezes, he realized with terrible horror of what he had done. He tried to sit up and looked towards the crippled aircraft. An explosion went off somewhere within the plane. It was a short, controlled one, but it was enough to set the whole aircraft on fire as black smoke poured from a dead engine. He had destroyed Tails' beloved X-Tornado. And this killed him inside.

Murky tears began to race down his blackened cheeks, both from the smoke irritation and from the loss of the plane. "I'm so sorry, Tails..."

He sagged against concrete, angry and sad at himself. What had he done? This was the worst thing...he had_ ever_ done. Guilt was a rare, unpleasant emotion for him. Suffering it was as rare as fear. Rather, nonexistent. Now guilt overcame him. It made him feel more nauseous. More angry. No robots or the GUN officials had caused the X-Tornado's doom. Sonic had. _The hero._

A tall, overbearing shadow fell upon his sweaty, queasy form. It even made Bokkun shy away from Sonic, his little demon robot ears flopping down submissively.

"Dear God..."

That voice...

Sonic rubbed at the tears, trying to control his hampering coughs. His whole body was sore with them. _Eggman... Eggman is here...revenge...it's him...I gotta...get up!_

"What the hell happened to you?" The Doctor's glasses and robust nose came into view from the swamp of his vision. He smelt of oil and cologne. Of hair gel for his moustache. But though he spoke brashly, his words were light and delicate with concern. This was about as shocking as making Tails' own plane explode.

_What a day._

Confused, Sonic shot upward, his legs finding balance and working with gravity as he stood. His vision kicked in, but his hounding coughs made him step back, entire form shaking with each effort.

"You!" He barked weakly, "you did this! All of this!"

Eggman didn't move. He stood there, watching.

"Why did you attack Chris on that day in the warehouse? You... you are a coward! I came here to settle the score, and remind you that this war is just between you and me. Leave my friends out of..." His lungs retched and he fell to his knees, hacking into another fit of mad coughs.

"How did you find this place?" Eggman asked, as if Sonic had confessed nothing at all. The human however didn't wait for a reply. He answered it himself. "The X-Tornado, I believe was your tool in finding this place. Well, that's okay. I don't disguise the emerald's signature simply because I was waiting for you furry bunch to make the first move. Bokkun couldn't lead me, which is fine. I struggle to get across town as it is without being seen, especially when I'm driving a forty ton tortoise. So I hide here."

"You attacked a boy!" Sonic rose, which took some time. It was easy to fall to the floor, and a million times harder just to get up again. He was so wet. It hadn't even been raining. Everything was as dry as bone, and here he was soaking as if he had been dipped in a pool a good few times.

"I didn't. The trap was for you and only you. And still I failed. You smashed my creation! It's me that should be angry!"

"Stop trying to shift the blame! Come at me!" He launched himself upward. Gravity finally became a trivial thing. Eggman looked up at him, arms dutifully folded. Unafraid. Impatient even, as if Sonic was wasting his time. This only ticked Sonic off even more.

He curled up and dived into where he knew Eggman was, spinning his quills like a chainsaw. Hungering to damage and lacerate. This to him, was the only thing right now that made sense out of Chris's accusations with the glass he had broke. And Eggman was the fault of it all.

His sharpened spines made a neat slice through brick wall. Sonic uncurled at the foot of the partition and saw that Eggman had never moved. He remained where he was, mere feet away from Sonic's avalanche on brick. Now this was getting embarrassing.

"That was a test run." Sonic declared brightly. "J-Just to see if you would spook and run."

"Not likely." The Doctor replied grimly, looking studious and cross. Even his voice came out gruff and unappeased. Sonic noted that the human's behaviour was not normal. They hadn't seen each other for days, and this was how Eggman acted? Angry? Agitated? Displeased? Was he really that mad after he destroyed a single robot? He never had been before. It was the usual game of cat and mouse.

"Get ready!" Sonic ran at the human, and veered sharply to he left as if to avoid being struck. To make up for this mistake, he began to run in circles, sure to confuse the human and strip the clothes off him from the forcing gales. But Eggman wasn't even in the circle.

Worn out, coughing and lost, Sonic fell out of his own tornado too abruptly. Everything had got too much. His fur was leaking water. The heat unbearable. His legs and arms were trembling as if he was leaning upon an earthquake that was vibrating through him. Sonic crashed into the floor, choking on vomit that kept on coming. His breath was stolen from him again and his chest seized up. All Sonic could see and know was wet, killing darkness.

XX

Doctor Eggman crouched down urgently and scooped Sonic's twitching body into his hands. Like a stern professional, he turned Sonic round so that his muzzle was facing the floor and slapped him hard in the back between his lower spines with the heel of his hand several times. "Come on you, spit it out. I can't have you expiring here. I don't want my last shack of a home to be haunted by you." But his teasing words were not a jubilant mockery of the situation. They were the opposite. Eggman was terrified for the first time in his life. Terrified of losing his greatest opponent and also his friend he once knew long ago.

Puzzlement set in the shadows for now as to why Sonic was in the way, Eggman concentrated on keeping him alive and had to put aside why Sonic was so feverish and sweaty to the touch. Bokkun watched on in fervent consternation. "Is he going to be okay?"

"Bokkun, warn the others and tell them to get unit4 ready. Now!"

"O-Okay!"

Grumbling, he whacked Sonic even harder. The hedgehog gurgled and wheezed at last as vomit splattered the floor below his chin. It wasn't much. Mostly orange juice, or so it seemed, and acidy water. But his strangled wheezing remained shallow and torpid. But...he was breathing again.

Gently, Eggman lifted him up with due care, hoping the hedgehog wouldn't jolt awake and get all offensive like he was prone in doing. If conscious, Sonic never allowed himself to look weak or need help in any way, shape or form. But there was to be no chance of that. With Eggman cradling him he knew just how serious this was. Sonic was completely out cold, body quickly burning up.

Eggman looked about him in modest curiosity for any sign of Sonic's lackeys. But the solid blue of the sky was empty. There was no sign of anybody. Sonic had come alone.

The burning wreckage of the plane would burn itself out. There was nothing to feed the fire. Only metal that had already been melted once and brick. And besides, the bones of the X-Tornado was a fair distance away from his base's main entrance, even if it looked like a tent because of the tarpaulin acting as a rudimentary roof.

Unit04 was a basic facility that didn't meet standards of any kind. It was unclean, under furbished, draughty. Used as a place to repair damaged robot goods or to stitch up a superficial wound. Eggman delved in science and nothing medical. Before this day, there had been no reason to have one.

Cradling Sonic with one arm, Eggman started setting machines up, mainly the overhead lights and radiator, hating how dirty this place had become out of his own careless neglect. His two servants, Decoe and Bocoe ran to get hot water, soap and towels from Eggman's own private quarters. But everything down here was dusty and cool. That was the price one had to pay by living underground in an old recycling facility where metal was stored from the scrap yard long ago. Now it was in disuse and Eggman had taken it and reshaped it into a rough home. So he had been residing safely here for some time, using the scraps that were dumped every day, and also using the same ground to casually discard old robots. The Government had never thought to look for him here. And so he had remained safe. Only coming out at night in disguise to shop for food and supplies.

With the hedgehog being as limp as a ragdoll, Eggman settled Sonic on a thin, dirty mattress that was attached to a metal wiry bed frame. Again only used for injured robots or used as a glorified shelf for various things."Bokkun?" He murmured abysmally, trying to remain cool and hard. "Get my phone. I need to make a call."

"Yes, sir." This time Bokkun didn't even pause to comment or make silly remarks. He was off on his mission with painstaking dedication.

Alone, Eggman removed his glasses and rubbed at his eyes. He replaced them back on his nose and stood, worried and perplexed. He had never hesitated before. He always knew what to do next, whether that be in performing a new mission, or how and when to retreat. Never in his life had he found himself mortally stuck. This was because Eggman didn't have what Sonic needed. He had no medical equipment. No drip or I.V. No apparatus. No syringes. Nothing. Just Band-Aids and aspirin. And so Eggman didn't know what to do. The only thing for it was to call Sonic's friends and arrange something. But he had to do it without giving his base of operations away.

"Sonic, you've always made my life complicated from the start." He nibbled at his lower lip and anxiously, nervously pulled at his left moustache, feeling the course bristles move through his hand. "Where are Decoe and Bocoe? This is getting stupid!"

He straightened to his full height after contemplating some more, and went to turn around in the effort to seek his servants out when the room was shortly filled by weak, whispery coughs and then heaving squeaks. Eggman literally felt a brush of fear. He hated Sonic for leaving him in this position.

"Vomiting again are we? What did you eat to upset you this way?" He got one hand behind Sonic's sweaty back and leaned him forwards, the other hand pressed against his chest supportively. Still unconscious and breathing in loose, dying segments, Sonic puked over the side of the mattress in weak spurts.

"Sonic..." He whispered to himself, "Why are you like this?"

He continued to hold Sonic at an angle, making sure all vomit was dispersed safely before laying him back down again. But Sonic's breathing was getting more and more difficult.

Grabbing a towel that was the least greasy (he used them to plug leaking oil holes or to scrub his own face of sweat); he used it to lay it over Sonic's burning body as a blanket.

Decoe returned with the hot soapy bucket. Bocoe was shunted out. Only one in at a time. Eggman didn't want the small room to be crowded more than it was already.

"Place that bucket there. Good. Give me a cloth. Start gently; he has flesh, not metal!"

"Right you are, Doctor." Decoe acknowledged. "He looks really pale, though. And looks like he's dying. I thought you wanted a world without Sonic?"

"I never said that. Now do your job!" He himself took off his own gloves and was about to pick up a cloth when Bokkun came up behind him and tugged on the black leather of his pants. The Doctor turned round at the disturbance. Bokkun held the phone. "Good. Is this the one where the signal can't be traced?" He watched Bokkun nod. "Bravo. Now get out of here."

The room did contain a very important artefact that this world naturally provided like the McDonald's Restaurant that he had got very keen on. And that was the local phone book. "Thorndyke, Thorndyke... come on come on... where are you...?" He ran a chunky finger down the list of names, eyes frantically searching. He heard the hedgehog give out a cracked cough and a sudden, painful wheeze.

"Doctor," Decoe started worriedly, "my heat sensors detect his temperature. I've never known fevers could get so high. And I don't know where all this body fluid is coming from..."

"Help him cool down, quickly! I'll help in a minute!" He went back to the list. Sonic suddenly turning up on his doorstep like this was a nightmare. He never wanted any of it. Ever. This wasn't how things were supposed to go. It was like finding a frog in the middle of the desert, or a camel in Alaska. It did not make sense.

"Ah, here it is! At last. Why does there have to be so many people with Thorndyke as their secondary names? Now then..." He keyed in the numbers and pressed the phone against his ear, not quite sure what he'd say. But every time he looked at Sonic's limp body, he was overridden with renewed conviction. Decoe was doing a good job, which was most surprising, considering that this wasn't what the robot was built for or intended. The android had lifted away the towel and was carefully cleaning out old mud and accumulated sweat, which there was a lot of. And each time Decoe made a wet, clean patch, he made it his very objective to dry it and keep Sonic from getting too chilled.

"Hello? This is the Thorndyke residence. What can I do for you?" The voice that came to him across the line was of older tone. And wasn't the boy. It was who he had met before on rare occasions during his and Sonic's squabbles. It was none other than Chuck Thorndyke.

"This is an anonymous caller with urgent news. It concerns Sonic." Saying the_ S_ word automatically refrained from Chuck hanging up upon hearing that he had an anonymous caller. Living in a plush mansion meant that they probably got their fair share of prank phone calls.

"What about him? And how do you know it's _the_ Sonic?" Chuck intoned at once, sounding much more emotional than he needed to be.

Ignoring the insult, he continued as blandly as he could, "Sonic's in a real state. I wouldn't call if I didn't know it was serious. You have my word. I have him now, but his condition is unstable. We need to meet up somewhere."

"We can come to you." Chuck sounded scared now. "What happened to him? Is the plane...?"

"Never mind that, I will explain when we meet and he is in care. But we can't meet here where I am."

"Why not?"

"It's impossible." He growled, getting impatient. "He needs a hospital. He's not breathing properly and he's vomiting twenty-four seven."

There was a pause. Chuck was thinking. When he next replied, his voice was shaking. He sounded half the man he was a moment ago. "There's a specialized hospital for animals in Newbury that we were going to... Look, it's of town. We need to meet on the highway and we can take him from there. We'll meet on Elska highway, on the second junction in twenty minutes. May I ask who's calling and what has happened to Sonic?"

"I'd like to ask you the same question."

Another distinct, uncomfortable pause. Then, what came out as a shaky whisper; "D-Doctor Eggman?"

The Doctor hung up, and the line went dead.

* * *

><p><strong>Dib07:<strong> Lol. Yeah. It gets far more...interesting from here. The next chapter will be a relief for everyone! Sonic will be taken in by professionals whether he'll be keen on it or not! XD But it is surprising how even enemies know that the time isn't now to duel out fights. Eggman has done this before in Sonic X and I admire that man for his human side. Over and out!

Lol, Sonic was I too harsh? XD

**Chapter 9: Coming next Thursday the 24th of November**


	9. Chapter 9

**Dib07: Next chapter! XD Another one I enjoyed writing, thanks to Eggman. And before I forget: HAPPY THANKSGIVING! We don't have it over here in England. It sucks. Bad. But I hope you all have a great time with your families and friends. Because they matter :)**

**Storm337: Hahaaha! Dude! Made me laugh! XD**

**DanceDream: Interesting what you said about Tails. Urm...how can I say this? Sonic's condition will make him do something...nothing mad or anything. Just a little something he does to Sonic next chapter. :) Cuz yeah, this is affecting the kitson badly. More inside than out at the moment. And you spotted it. Ah man, there is so much behind Eggman's character. And this chapter explains it, sort of. But even Eggman has layers and feelings. I like that. That man is all blab sometimes, bit like Sonic! They make a right pair! Oh gosh, I didn't get to see Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I better go check it out online!**

**xxxxx**

**This chapter is dedicated to DC111. You can find a link to her story; Survivor's Resolve on my profile page. (And she's done many more, including 'When Enough Isn't Enough,' and 'Beyond the Chaos.' This is a marvellous author who knows Sonic inside and out and characterizes everyone perfectly. Her main stories are adventure with great thrills and her writing can be very dark and witty like mine. She has been a fan of Sonic and Tails for longer than me, and her work is a glorious art form in words. This chapter is dedicated to her, as she often helps me out with my work too. She is always there for me, and has further inspired me to write more fanfiction than I ever intended. Thanks, DC! Here's to you and the future of Sonic!**

**Chapter 9:**

There was only one hospital in Newbury that dealt with animals that Chuck could have meant. And that was the Veterinary College in Milton twelve miles into Newbury that was a refurbished hospital. So that equated to twenty miles from his base. If Eggman was fast enough, he could get there in less than an hour. If the traffic was good.

He just hoped that the meddling Thorndyke's and Tails were smart enough to go straight there too once they found out there would be no arranged meeting on the highway. There was no time to exchange Sonic there. No time. Besides, Eggman would hit the highway first, and then be forced to wait for them while Sonic continued to suffer in his car. And if they did arrive, all they'd do was gape anyway once they found out who the Good Samaritan was. And that would undoubtedly waste another fifteen seconds.

"Doctor, what are you going to do?" Decoe asked.

"Save him. A bully has to have his victims. A life without Sonic is like a life without luxury. It's impossible. Besides, if I do nothing, he may well die. And that can't happen in my care. If I have to write my own chapter, then so be it. I've saved him before. I'll do it again. Decoe, finish cleaning him up. I'll get the car ready."

The car was a gold Honda NSX, a much beloved piece of machinery that Eggman had bought not long after his coming to Earth. Trading some of his (flawed) designs to an outsider working for GUN, he was able to afford this luxury car with ease, with its registration plate saying: KILL HOG 247. After all, a normal kind of car made him blend in really well and even got the ladies heads turning as he passed them by.

He eased it into first gear and rolled it out of the garage above his underground lab. He parked it on the dry, shabby dirt road that would take him out of the junk yard and into open road that belonged to Redis town.

"Sonic better be grateful for this." Decoe stepped out into the burdening sunlight with the hedgehog in his arms wrapped in a pink blanket. His metal feet made loud crunches as he traversed across gravel. Over his shoulder was a shopping bag.

"Was that the only color blanket you could find?" Eggman asked in clear irritation as Decoe walked up to him.

"Sorry, but it's the only wool I could find in the scrap yard at the time. I do like my knitting you know. It's your fault you designed us to have free will."

"Whatever! Give him to me! I don't have all week." The awkward ceremony of the hedgehog exchanging hands was complete and the Doctor approached the open car door. "Keep all lines open. I may call you later."

"Yes, Doctor. But is this really a good idea? You are in hiding! They'll see you and arrest you!"

"Yes, yes, quite." He diverted his attention to his life-long nemesis. It was like holding a sleeping piranha. Sonic did look haplessly non-lethal when he slept, but at any time he could rouse and attack. Gently, he rested him on the front seat of the car beside the driver's seat. He made sure he was comfortable enough on his side so that if he vomited again, he wouldn't choke. Thanks to Decoe's care, he was clean and smelt like apple shampoo. Carefully he slipped a hand in beneath the blankets to gauge his temperature. It was like drawing his fingers into a hot oven.

Decoe passed the shopping bag over to Eggman. It contained his disguise for the day and a bottle of water.

"Please be careful." Was his personal assistant's parting advice as he lumbered round to the driver's side.

"Yes, yes. Just keep out of trouble. All of you. I'll be right back once all this is over. And someone use an extinguisher on the X-Tornado's debris please. It might attract someone's attention. If it does, just say a pile of garbage accidently went aflame."

"Yes, Doctor."

Eggman slipped into the driver's seat that was way too narrow for his hide. It hurt. But sometimes pride with a new car had to hurt.

There was no time to fit on his disguise now. It would have to be done on the go. Sonic needed assistance at once.

The engine was already humming away like a purring tiger. He thumbed the gear lever from its reverse gauge and sent it forwards. It rolled quite happily down the dirt track. The car's insulation kept Sonic from feeling the bumps and jerks from the road. Then the Honda sailed onto open asphalt towards Redis town. Picking up speed, Eggman manned the gear stick and dove into fourth gear. Luckily the road was open for far. The traffic was thin and there was a lot of open space to eat up. With one hand on the stirring wheel, he rummaged in his shopping bag and began to change into his disguise. It was the most awkward thing he had ever done in his life. First the beige baggy pants had to go on, then the lurid green top and leather gloves.

The cars skimmed past on his right-hand side. Sonic was resting soundly on the passenger side, starting to sweat again through his pink blanket, totally oblivious to Eggman's dress rehearsal.

"Look at the things you're putting me through you, you blue pincushion from hell." He had been too busy trying to pull one pant-leg up and his Honda dazed too far left. He jerked it back again before an incoming car could thrash them both. A beeping of horns swept by as he busied himself with his pants. "You did it on purpose. Came flying in – only to faint on my doorstep. Attention seeking you are. Always have been. Blast these clothes!" He didn't much care that he was talking to himself. Living alone with no other living being had its prices. Rouge was a change of pace. Someone new who would actually listen now and again. But it wasn't preferred company. "You blew my latest design up in that warehouse. To bits, you did. You like to overkill things." He stretched both legs into the pants, having to relax his feet every now and then on the acceleration pedal, one on the clutch at all times. This wasn't just difficult, it was near insane. "I could just throw you out right now. Leave you for the crows. Oh, don't tempt me." He added as if Sonic may have imputed his own voice in opinion. "One of these days I'm going to ignore your petty battles and I will go for conquest. No more fun and games. No more this, no more that, no more time wasters, no more tag. And no more battle of wits." He left his belt buckle on done and went to grab his fleece top. Sonic moved a hand forward beneath his blanket, his sides rising and falling a little quicker. Still he did not wake. "I know, I know. What am I saying?" Eggman nodded at his rival. "I love our irritating games that we have, sadly. What have I gotten myself into? Decoe was right; you're not going to thank me for this, are you? Animals have no manners after all. I still can't believe I'm doing this. If it wasn't for Rouge and her emeralds, you wouldn't have found me. And now I'm stuck. That stupid X-Tornado and its insolent emerald tracker."

The traffic began to get thicker. It was all right at first, giving Eggman time to slip his Honda up through the junctions, leaving the smaller roads of Redis behind. The car poured on the speed, and if it wasn't for the traffic, he'd get there by twenty minutes or less. But this wasn't the case. The highway was full of cars.

Slowing down, Eggman was able to let go of the stirring wheel briefly to throw on his fleece top. "I've been watching that Sherlock Holmes show, ya know, for the disguises! Very neat idea, that. Watch much TV do you?" He succinctly gazed at his nemesis before reverting his gaze back to the road. "No, you're too busy causing mayhem to watch decent shows." He honked his horn at the woman in front who was driving much too slow. "Hurry it up you old bag!" The Doctor snapped at his windshield, eyes on the lady in front.

There came a few, strained coughs that rapidly turned into distressed squeaks. Eggman looked down to see Sonic surfacing from his brief fainting spell. He fidgeted a little in his blanket, eyes barely open. "T-Tails...?" He croaked in-between the coughing fits.

"Tails is not here." Eggman addressed him in his usual strong, no-nonsense voice. "You're with me, you insufferable rodent. You came to me. What else do you expect? Room service too? Bed and breakfast?" But his jokes fell short. Sonic's coughs were overly persistent and he could not get a break for air. The blanket layering his thin body was starting to dampen heavily from the sweat being expired. Eggman slowed considerably and indicated his Honda right to grab the shoulder lane. He knew he shouldn't be stopping. He had to get Sonic to Newbury. But he couldn't just keep driving either while Sonic had another attack.

He safely pulled over, applying the brakes hard. Slamming the handbrake on while the other cars on the highway slammed past, Eggman got out, his pants pooling down around his ankles because he still hadn't done the belt up.

Pulling them up with an angry jerk, he did the belt while quickly jogging to the passenger side. He threw the door open and knelt down to get a better view of his enemy and to try and see how he could help.

He reached in against his better judgement and began to lightly pat his back. "Don't sharpen your quills on me, you little heinous fur ball. I need my fingers." But the coughs weren't going away.

Eggman reached for the water in the bag, took it out and uncapped the bottle. With one hand, he nervously, warily, raised Sonic's head upwards and raised the tip of the bottle towards lax lips. The entire effort was no good. Sonic, not fully conscious, did not drink it. Could not. Water dribbled out his mouth and pattered the blanket and the plush leather seat beneath him.

"Don't do this to me, hedgepig. Please just drink."

Helpless and angry, having got himself into this position willingly, only to see Sonic deteriorate more and there was still nothing he could do about it, Eggman screwed the cap of the bottle back on. He hated not knowing what to do. Hesitation and indecisiveness was not part of his being. The good thing with robots was that they never bled, breathed or ate. They were effortlessly simple to maintain once built and never caught diseases. Now Eggman realized why he liked living alone and talking to himself. Because he didn't want problems that came with sentient life.

_If Sonic dies, I win. I win the world_. He thought. _But every time I'll shut my eyes or try and sleep, all I'll remember is this moment and everything else that has happened today. It's not right._

"Sorry, rodent, but this is the only thing I can think of to calm your coughing." Acquiring the edge of blanket, he used it to cover Sonic's mouth just enough so that could still breathe, but like a hyperventilating victim breathing into a paper bag, Sonic's lungs had to cope with more carbon dioxide to calm his choking fits and to ease his diaphragm. His nose remained uncovered, but it was too congested to use.

The coughing subsided. But Eggman wasn't sure for how long. He let the corner of blanket drop, and then slipped back into the car again. It was time to race to the hospital. If he was unlucky, the cops might pull him over for speeding.

The Honda left the quiet lane, its throttling engine roaring with throaty spurts from the repressed power. The highway was his again. Newbury was thirty five minutes away. He tapped nervously on the stirring wheel. Sonic was his quiet, non-argumentative companion.

XXX

Tails stuck his head out the open window, the wind smacking his locks of hair around. Newbury hospital was a much bigger building than first envisioned. It was two tower blocks, bigger than the usual office type of architecture. It had at least three wings of added building and a long, wide parking bay. Chuck stopped outside the entry gate where a security guard was posted. All of them had arrived late. It was evening. They had raced out of town to meet this so-called man who sounded way too much like Eggman. The highway was busy, yes, but no one came to stop with a hedgehog. Tails increasingly found it harder to wait. Amy was all flustered back at home before they left. "Call the police!" She was saying. "Someone has kidnapped him, Eggman or otherwise! Call the government! The FBI! Anyone!"

Tails stood on the shoulder lane on the highway while the waiting got more painful. Chris and Chuck eagerly inspected the cars that raced by, hoping to see a hedgehog in there, which was an impossible dream. The sun docked lower in the heavens. The shadows grew. And Tails had had enough. "To the hospital." He said. "They'll take him there, I'm sure they will. We gotta go!"

"If Eggman has him, he wouldn't take him to the hospital!" Chris argued. "Why would he? That man is evil!"

"Chris," Chuck said, "when I used to work for a shop down in Newport before I got deep into mechanics, I used to help clean up the shop. We all hated rats. Treated them as common vermin. We set mouse traps up for them, big ones to stop them stealing food and causing damage. When I got up the next morning, I found one caught in a trap. Still alive but badly hurt. My hate just went out the door that day. Everything changes when we think we know something, and then the tables turn. We may loathe certain things, Chris, but we don't want ill health or injury on anybody. Eggman is not the greatest saint, but he is still human. If he has Sonic, I believe he will help. Call me old and crazy, but I have a good feeling on this one. Now let's get into the car and go."

Chris remained unconvinced. He sat silently in the car, staring out the window. Eyes focused on the passing cars. The sky bled a deep, satin red.

"Chris, it'll be all right." Tails spoke to him calmly. "I'm worried too. He doesn't feel well, and he took the X-Tornado. But he's a lucky guy. Well, sometimes. Speak to me."

"I feel bad, Tails."

The kitson looked up at him in modest interest. "Why?"

"I really yelled at him when he broke the glass tumbler. I told him to stay away from me."

"You didn't mean it, Chris. And I'm sure he knows that. He never holds a grudge."

"I know. I was scared. He acted so differently and it caught me by surprise. I think he was too sore from the warehouse and I spooked him with the can. I never said sorry to him."

"Don't worry. Maybe you did spook him. Unless his hearing is coming and going. Sometimes he's deaf. Other times... he seems to hear me perfectly. Maybe the soda can popping really startled him? It makes sense, in which case, you overreacted."

Chris nodded. "I sure did."

The security guard at the tolling booth looked Chuck up and down as the old man remained in the driver's seat. "Here to see if a patient has been admitted." The man explained to the guard.

"Your name."

"Mr. Chuck Thorndyke."

"It's fifteen dollars an hour to park here. How long will you be staying?"

Chuck glanced over his shoulder to lay eyes on Chris and Tails at the back. Their expressions were harder to read in the gathering dusk as all lights faded except the artificial ones humming away in the hospital complex like plucked stars. Tails shrugged. Chris emulated the same reaction.

"Fours hours, please." Chuck looked back round at the guard. "For now. Has anyone with a blue hedgehog come by here?"

"Not everyone identifies the breed or nature of their pet, sir." The guard explained honestly. "They either have an appointment and pay their ticket or come in via accident and emergency. And even if they did state the nature of their pet or a human patient, it is confidential information."

"Ah yes. I suppose so." Chuck handed in the fee and the guard returned it with a ticket to place on the dashboard of their vehicle. The gates opened and the car rolled on through. By now it was truly dark and the overhead parking lights showered them in blinding stark white luminescence. Tails got a very ominous feeling as he left the car. He supposed that everybody felt that way once they got out any car in a hospital parking lot. But right now he felt very ill at ease. His brother wasn't here beside him and he should have been.

"Everybody ready?" Chuck was the last out of the car. He slipped on a great big duster coat and locked the vehicle. Tails and Chris both nodded reluctantly. "Good. Smile to the staff. And Tails, you are going to be stared at, a lot."

"Yeah, I figured. I'm more used to it now anyway and so long as Sonic is in there, I don't care this time."

"All right then. Stay close to me, both of you. This Veterinary College is a big place."

Tails shambled along behind them, not keen on entering this malignant building before him. They left the giant parking lot and walked towards one of the many entrances. Each entryway had a title in large metallic stencilled words. Some had: Broken Bone Unit. Others had: X-Ray Research facility. And still more as they passed down the path: Tumour and Cancer Department. Chuck walked on ahead confidently, heading for one particular entryway. A double door entrance that displayed the word: Reception. Now they were getting somewhere.

"If Sonic's not here, we call the cops." Chuck allayed their main concern. "Someone was bound to see which way the X-Tornado was headed."

The double doors opened out as Tails and Chris followed in Chuck's shadow. Entering a building where sick animals were admitted did not bode well, and Tails began to physically shiver. A lot of the smells here were masked by cleaning products and disinfectants, but his sensitive nose still picked up a lot of unpleasant smells.

The floor was a smooth, svelte marble white. The ceiling was high up over their heads, the lights twinkling like white gems. There was a young man at reception behind a large, dark oak desk. The table surface was a bright scarlet. He had short, blond hair and wore a very smart jacket, pants and a tie. The rest of the room was rather empty except for a myriad of chairs situated at the walls with heavy, steel tables neatly piled with magazines.

Chuck approached the front desk and didn't dither. "Hullo. Sorry to stroll in here so late but we need to check to see if a patient has been submitted here. He's a small, blue hedgehog."

The receptionist looked at him in muddled perplexity. "And you are?"

"Chuck Thorndyke. Look, I know this may sound odd, but bear with me. Tails, step out of my shadow for me for just a moment." The kitson did, nervously coming to stand outwardly from his adopted family. He didn't look at the receptionist. "There." Chuck continued. "Did an animal looking like him but blue come in here earlier?"

The receptionist could not help but stare at the two-tailed fox.

Chuck felt his impatience growing. "Please, you gotta help us. It's been a long drive and we really gotta know."

"What's the animal's name?" The young gentleman asked, still unable to peel his eyes away from the peculiar bipedal fox.

Chuck had been so worked up that he forgot that massively important detail. "Uh, Sonic. His name is Sonic."

"And your relation to him?"

"We are his family."

The Receptionist leafed through the admittance records with quick scans, his eyes working fast to discern the massive list of names, dates and times. By now another staff member had entered through a staff door behind the desk. The name tag on her white coat read: 'Jessica.' She put down a pile of medical documents that was at least four foot thick. She had curly, long dark red hair.

"No one came by here, but I'll check my admittance files concerning the other Departments." Said the male Receptionist. Tails skulked back behind Chuck. This was taking too long. Waiting was indeed a painful game.

"I've lost both Sonic and the X-Tornado all in the same day." He spoke, at a loss to Christopher. "It's weird not having the plane outside the house, and even weirder without Sonic around. I shouldn't have left him to make that bath. Do you think he ran because that meant he was going to get wet?"

Chris shrugged, not sure what to say.

"Ah yes, here we are." The Receptionist announced, causing Tails to lift his head up, eyes wide in hope. "A Mr. Sonic Maurice. Brought into the Accident and Emergency Department at 17:34pm today by a Mr. R Smith. That was two hours ago."

"Oh thank god. Where is Sonic now? Is he okay?"

"I'm not sure. I'm not a nurse or a doctor. I just sign in patients or register them out including visitors."

"Which room is he in?" Chuck cried, his previous sense of calm weeding out of its shell in seconds.

"Again, I am not sure. Usually they state which rooms patients are allocated in, but I was never informed, which means he might be in one of the ICU wings."

Jessica, who had overheard the conversation, lifted her head up from her towering pile of documents and surveyed them from the desk. "I can take you to the ICU wing." She said. "I was going to head down there anyway to give the doctor these paper files. You can all come, but I'd advise you to be quiet because we just got two canines to go to sleep. They've been in a car accident you see, and need their rest. But if they wake up and bark, it'll disturb everyone else down there."

"Do you admit humans?" Chris asked out of curiosity.

"Yeah. Sometimes. I'll explain on the way. Come with me." Taking her armload of papers, they left Reception and followed her lead, Tails still at the rear. "People have their own unit. But it's very expensive to run and therefore we don't get many people patients. However we do have a wing set aside for each department. We treat all life the same. There is no separate entity or value. The founder, Mr. Edward Steel, thought like that, and his dream was to take care of both. Animal and man. You see, both his daughter and her pet dog got into a nasty accident by another dog. They were mauled. His daughter had to be treated here, but she didn't want to lose sight of her dog. And this gave Edward the idea. Sadly not everyone agreed with him, and no one wanted to fund the hospital. However, a few years later, he got the funding he wanted from an anonymous donor. We never knew who, but he had the go-ahead and this hospital was built. Now it's a college too, where it trains nurses for human care or animal care or both. But we do have more animal facilities than we do for people and no other human has been admitted for two months now."

"Is Edward Steel still...around?" Chuck asked.

"Oh yes. He's the manager. He's always around."

They walked down many clean, neat and tidy corridors. The stench of cleaning materials was still very strong, and Tails had to hold his nose on regular occasions. Sometimes they passed windows that looked into other units. The fox noticed that they had left the animal side of things and into human patient territory. When he tried to peer in through a window despite his short stature, he saw human beds in a singular ward. But all of them were empty. It looked a little ghostly.

They entered another hall. This one was dead quiet except for the clicking or stamp of their shoes as they passed down it. Overhead on one of the double doors were the letters: ICU 4.

But sadly they were still not greeted by the sight of a hedgehog. Jessica only led them to another doctor's office where there were examination tables, an overhead projection monitor, a desk, table and computer terminal where patients came to be looked at. Two people were already in there. A young, dark haired lady sat at the computer console, her fingers hovering over the keyboard as if she had been in the middle of typing something. And a large fat man resided beside her, his arms folded across his portly chest. Though what he was wearing was a bit of a throwback to his appearance, Tails saw through the disguise straight away. It was Doctor Eggman, dressed in an ugly green fleece, strange, baggy pants and a top hat to hide his bald head. But his moustache still prevailed and broke any illusion or facade he may have wanted behind any of his false costumes.

"They are here to see Sonic." Jessica stated, putting the pile of file work on the doctor's desk. "They are his family."

Chuck nodded. But his eyes saw no hedgehog. Tails came forward and felt all eyes on him. Tears were gathering in his own eyes already even when no word yet was spoken. Something in his heart already told him how serious this was. He wanted to speak to Eggman too. Wanted it all out of him immediately. But right now the doctor's unhappy demeanour held them all.

She rose from her desk chair and gave them a brief, courtesy smile, but the gesture never reached her eyes. "It's good to meet Sonic's family. Mr. Smith was expecting you." She unfurled a hand and held it out. Chuck shook it warmly. Then they parted. "I am the doctor. But you can call me Chelsey. There is so much you want to know. I'd like to ask some questions myself. These can wait, and you may see him now, but I need some information as soon as possible. I cannot stress this enough."

"Wanna...wanna see him." Tails managed, forcing his lips to work. "Please. Then we'll talk. But...but talk about what?"

"All in due time. But only one visitor in at a time, please. Who shall go first?"

Chuck placed his hand on Tails' shoulder. "You go." He said. "I'll have words with _Mr. Smith_ and take care of this from here. Don't you worry about a thing."

Tails nodded. "Thank you." He gave 'Mr. Smith' another glance. Eggman stared back, unusually, eerily quiet. The unnatural despondency coming from him was terrifying. The fact made even worse that it was Eggman after all who had brought him in. Was Sonic okay? Was Eggman really that merciful? Or was there some other reason that explained this sudden, uncharacteristic kindness?

Tails was led down the hall by Chelsey. He stood gravitated by her side as she took him to a white door that was stencilled: '_Intensive care room 7: Maurice – species: hedgehog. Do not enter unless you have the Doctor's permission.'_

The door opened and the hallway light speared its way into a darkened singular room.

"You have five minutes, erm..."

"Tails." He said, eyes locked towards the dark shape of the bed in the room.

"Okay Tails. I'll come back for you soon." She turned to leave. She had urgent matters to attend to. Chris and Chuck would be bolted to the wall with an unsettling interrogation which didn't sound good. The young kitson strayed a little longer in the doorway, the light on his back. Darkness in front but just enough to see by. Only just. Picking up his courage, Tails walked in, letting the door silently close itself shut behind him. He walked forwards towards the bed. Even his own breathing sounded much too loud.

Five minutes was not enough time.

* * *

><p><strong>Dib07: <strong>I never know what to say down here. EVER! LOL! Have a good day, all! XD


	10. Chapter 10

**DanceDream: Hiya, dear reader. (You are one of my absolute favs. Always look forward to your reviews and chuckle like crazy sometimes when I read what you put down in the review!) Yeah, Eggman was so madly fun to write. And sadly I will never type a situation like that ever again in my life, but stories are always different and show change, and there's always gotta be something new! And Eggman certainly won't be forgetting that day soon! Sadly, there is still some suspence in this chapter and not a whole lot answered. However, chapter 11 DOES reveal all, pretty much. There was so much to fit into 'this' chapter, and struggled where to reasonably end it for the next one! Otherwise it would have been even longer! Yes, the Thorndyke's are pretty worried to death. At least Sonic is in a safe environment now, but it's all down to where things go from here. Well, DanceDream, have an awesome Christmas. It is a really special day, and it's a shame it goes so fast. Oh and Happy New Year too! You take care, and I'll speak to you next year! XD**

**Storm337: LOL! You'll never be able to look at your language teacher the same way again! XD Eggman is everywhere!**

**KhallieGurl: So, so glad I could provide a fanfiction that meets your needs, because here on FFN, that's all that really matters. I'm really glad I chose the Sonic X Universe for this, because it wouldn't have worked so well if I had used any others, and despite the show's flaws, it is the best currently out there, and something I will always come back to. I love the whole 'family' environment they have in the show, and the overall personality of the characters. So for I'll Be Right Here, I always try and make it feel like an episode. And I am so proud to have SFCMD! ^_^**

**This chapter is dedicated to KhallieGurl.**

**X**

**Chapter 10:**

"I know, Amy." Tails paced the long, white waiting hall with restless steps. Even his twin tails erratically twirled together, only to unwind then re-curl in a consistent pattern that reflected his anxiety even when he tried to obliterate it from his voice. He had burrowed Christopher's phone and rang home to keep Amy and Cream up to date. It was only fair. They were worrying at home, having known that the rest of the family almost fell out of the house at once to rush to the hospital. They knew little of nothing to what was going on, and it was best to inform them. After all, they couldn't be here right now, which was probably for the best. The last thing Sonic needed right now was her company. But even as he thought this, he regretted it. Amy sounded genuinely worried and upset. She reflected how he felt inside. Cut up and sorrowful. If she would have been here now, she wouldn't disturb Sonic's rest at all. She'd know just how serious it was, and thus react as such to the situation. She was old enough not to panic or grab Sonic in rough, careless hugs.

"Did you find out what happened to the X-Tornado?" She asked next down the line. Her words were shrill. Shivery with concern. She was probably in the lounge, pacing like he was. Nursing over a hot chocolate to slake off some of the shaky nerves with Cream sitting worriedly on the sofa. Sonic had inadvertently put them all in this situation. Ironic really. The most selfless creature in the world who didn't want to worry a thing had put them all at their wit's end. And this was only the beginning.

"No, not yet. I assume Eggman has it, since he's the one who brought Sonic in."

"I still can't get over that it was _him_ that helped!" He heard Amy reply. "What kind of sicko is he?"

"I'm not sure myself, but I'm really too thankful to confront him about it yet either. That can wait. What's important is that Sonic is safe and secure. He looks...better. I watched him sleeping. I think he's going to be okay." Though Dr. Clover's raging undertone as she spoke to the rest of Sonic's family made him know this wasn't strictly so.

"I want to come over."

"Not at the moment. We're hoping Sonic will only be here a day or two. So we're staying over, even if it means taking a nap in the public cafeteria all night." He heard her sigh. A lost, frustrated rebuke to his explanations.

"Well, okay, Tails. But you had better ring me as soon as you get another update or if he wakes, you hear me? I don't care what time of the night or morning it is! Call me!"

Tails rolled his eyes and nodded even if the expression went unknown to her. "Sure thing, Amy. You'll be the first to know."

"Are you going to let Knuckles know anything about this?"

"I see no reason why we should. Anyway he's done his part and I don't want to...annoy him. Besides, he has his own phone now. If he wants to know how we're doing, he can call."

"Okay. This is going to be the longest night in my life."

"Mine too."

They said their goodbyes and Tails regretfully hung up. He looked up at the cheap, plastic clock on the wall above the double exit doors. 9:20pm. Time crawled. Irreversibly. Sometimes the kitson swore the minute hand only crept backwards.

With a huff of rue and despair, he went back into the doctor's warm office. His family hadn't moved from where he had left them. Chuck was taking in everything Dr. Chelsey was saying, and then adding in his own knowledge every now and then, albeit woodenly. Chris sat like a paralyzed mannequin on his chair, back to the wall. Face shadowed despite the artificial lighting. It was clear that he was finding this all hard to take in. Tails had felt faint earlier and had to leave the room. Had to occupy himself with something to keep his mind off it, so he called up Amy. The reasons weren't to reassure her. That benefit was only secondary. The reason for calling was only to calm himself. And it had worked for about fifteen seconds. Now he was back in the chaos. He waited by the door.

Dr. Eggman didn't even acknowledge his brief departure. He sat in the furthest corner, still wearing his odd disguise. Arms folded as per usual in a defensive manner that did not entirely suit him.

Chelsey regarded Tails sparingly for a few seconds, mostly still fascinated and slightly daunted by his alien appearance to her. Then she forced her glance away and settled it back on Chuck. "We don't know for sure yet. He's going to need to undergo a few tests to determine the extent of the damage. But first we need to generalize his body's chemistry. What he's allergic too and so on. I suggest we leave him to rest tonight before we start anything at dawn. I also suggest we leave the questioning for later. I don't want to distress him. However, what I am most disappointed with is his clear indication of neglect. How you have got him so dehydrated is beyond me. Not only that but he feels underweight. What is his normal weight exactly?"

"We all love Sonic very much." Chuck defended at once, speaking for all of them (excluding Mr. Smith). He remained defiant despite her grilling. "If he decides to dig holes under the blazing summer sun whilst vomiting, yes, of course he's going to be dehydrated! His odd behaviour had everyone confused."

"If you noticed such 'odd behaviour' as you put it, why didn't you get help for him sooner?"

"We weren't sure. Some days he seemed fine... it's complicated, doctor."

"Did you provide him with enough to eat all times of the day?"

"Well, yes of course! We...we mostly leave it for him to sort out. He knows where the food is kept."

Chelsey looked even less impressed. The more Chuck strove to defend them, the more surreal and terrifying this ordeal was becoming for all involved. Even Eggman had been grilled. Eggman. Grilled by a mere woman. But he too seemed cowed. He had barely spoken unless questioned. Tails wasn't sure if Eggman would decide to leave...or stay as soon as the interrogation was over.

"Well, his dehydration's been halted. The machines will keep him stable and comfortable. Then he'll be strong enough to undergo the tests. But first I'm going to need to question him and see where he stands in all of this."

Chuck hung his head. "Yes doctor."

"Now," the female doctor said, settling Chris especially with hard, curious eyes, "what happened exactly in the warehouse on that day? You were the only one present, correct? Start from the beginning and take your time."

The boy looked quickly at Chuck and then Tails, seeking mental support. He shortly explained what had transpired. The machinery exploding (he left the part out about Eggman) and how Sonic saved him from injury. "I had to race back in to find him." Chris continued as he uncomfortably recounted the tale. "It was dark in there. Fire and smoke everywhere. I found him, but he was out cold."

"How long had he been unconscious for?"

"I don't know."

"Had he stopped breathing at all?"

"Yeah, he had." He complied, eyes gazing at the floor.

"For how long?"

She was adamant to get all the information she needed. Tails was more than happy to wait in the sidelines, content for once not to be involved simply because he'd break down like the cub he was and shoot out of the room in front of all of them, including Eggman. It was also cruelly ironic how even Eggman himself was here, hearing the story from Sonic's side. He had obviously got out unharmed through possible ejection, and had not realized what simple leaking gas and fire could do to a hedgehog. Yes, it was painful hearing Chris recount what had transgressed, but it was vital information nonetheless.

"I don't know." Chris fiddled with his hands in his lap. "It was all happening so fast!" His voice choked up. Chuck pressed a firm hand on his shoulder. "Maybe four minutes...maybe more, maybe less."

"And his symptoms after?"

Chris hid his face away behind his hands. Tails wasn't sure if it was mere grief that had sent Chris off, or guilt, or both. So Chuck answered for him; "regretfully, Sonic wavered in and out of consciousness for some time, and he had a heavy seizure during the very next day after the incident. We called for professional help from one of his personal friends. And yes, he seemed better after that. But then he started developing odd behaviour."

"Go on."

Chuck explained in more detail the holes Sonic fervently dug in the summer afternoons. The heavy vomiting spells and the frequent, haphazard way he walked. Tails had to join his voice to the appeal and told her the washing machine incident, his deafness and the way he acted towards Christopher. But one of his more distressing symptoms was the way he spent an age staring at either a patch on the carpet or the way he gazed at the garden solidly for minutes on end.

'Mr. Smith' remained silent throughout.

Chelsey doted the last few notes down on paper. She could not evaluate anything just yet. It felt like a detective case, where she would then need to work out what was wrong, what was normal, and if Sonic's behaviour was indeed something to worry about. Right now, she had nothing to go on but his family's confession.

"Well, that'll be all for tonight. I presume you'll be staying over?"

Chuck left the hard, uncomfortable chair. "I had better fill up the meter in the car park."

Tails watched them all file out the room. Eggman taking the rear. He did not stop to speak with the two-tailed fox. Though Sonic's circumstances weren't anyone's fault, Chelsey was only doing her job by grilling them. It was only natural to assume that some external factor had been the result of Sonic's physical deterioration and not of his own doing, like his loss of weight and severe dehydration. It was good to have a human medical doctor care so much, of which she did. Wanting to get to the bottom of this mess and make Sonic immediately well again even if it had resurfaced memories Chris especially wanted to be rid of.

XXX

Sonic spilled from his dreams in foggy confusion. He blinked twice, realizing that he had stopped dreaming, or so he assumed. He was looking up at a white, high ceiling that was not speckled in cracks like the ones in Chris's room. The sheets were tight over his body. He could hear activity not far from him, perhaps outside the room. Lots of footfalls. The sliding shut of doors. The murmur of people. He swivelled his ears downward, and the noises disappeared. The air was pungent with alien smells he naturally did not like. But amongst the smells of unsettling certainty was a familiar scent. It took him back to home. Where the grass was thick and cumbersome. Where the trees poured upwards to meet the sky and the mountains were the monoliths of fortitude and adventure.

His ears drew forwards, and he levelled his gaze downward, bottom of his chin touching the thick, white sheets. Tails sat at his immediate right-hand side on a little plastic chair. He was holding his hand, but for some reason Sonic was too numb to feel his touch. There was an ugly catheter that looked like it had been drilled into his wrist, and the numbness explained it. He was attached to an IV. Tails' eyes never wavered from his thickly confused ones.

"Hiya, bro. Good to see you." Tails broke out to him.

"Where am I?" He took another brief look around him, hoping to see an answer. He was in a hospital room, this much he gathered. But the room was only lit by a dim light above them. The corners and machinery were feathered in premature darkness.

"Newbury Hospital. Guess who took you here?"

Sonic levelled his eyes back at Tails again. This was not good. He was in a place he didn't know. It made little sense. Why a hospital? He wasn't sick or injured. "Buddy, why am I here? Have I been...kidnapped? You too?"

"No, silly!" Tails took a moment to gather himself. "Eggman brought you in. He was worried about you."

"Eggman?"

"Yes!"

"So we've been kidnapped by him?"

He discerned Tails draw back a little, face moulding into a frowned smile. "You haven't been kidnapped. You're safe here, in the hospital. Chuck and Chris are waiting outside. We can't allow anymore than one person in here. There's gotta be room at all times for the staff in case... well, never mind that. What matters is that we're together again."

Sonic studied him for a moment, trying to comprehend what Tails had verbally delivered. Like pieces in a puzzle coming together to reveal the overall picture, he remembered. He had gone to see Eggman. Had gone to deal with him as only he knew how best to do it. He got there using the X-Tornado. The X-Tornado...that blew up. Tears overcame him. They came from nowhere in particular, but all at once he was consumed by regret and the unsettling sadness he did not like.

"Hey, Sonic, you okay? You're...you're crying..."

"Hey, Tails... your plane. I had an accident. I sorta...blew it up." For a tiny moment Sonic wanted to turn away. And not beguile himself by watching Tails' reaction unfold. But he couldn't turn away from it all, and pretend to ignore what was there. So he decided to face Tails' misery. He deserved all the hate one could give. But Tails' reaction immeasurably surprised him. Anger did not dawn on his brow. Disrespect did not foil his temper. He merely slid a hand beneath Sonic's back and forced him upwards and against him in an embrace. He allowed himself to be moved into his arms, body a little tense.

"I know you did."

"H-How?" The guilt flared to new strengths he didn't even think were possible to feel.

"Eggman told me everything. He also told me how he almost lost you."

"Tails..." He couldn't understand. What his brother had just uttered did not make any comprehensible sense. He tried to digest the information while he still had it, but the thoughts just slipped away into the fog like silk.

"Dr. Chelsey said she couldn't get you breathing properly for ten minutes upon arrival. They had to give you a respiration stimulant to get you started."

The tears pooled down Sonic's eyes and dripped down Tails' back, some of the water droplets clinging to his reddish fur on their trial downwards. "Can we go home now, bud?"

"When you're ready, yes."

"I'm ready now." He ruefully eased himself from the kitson's warm embrace. "Just show me to the exit. I'll take care of the rest. How many robots are out there?" He didn't hear the kitson's reply. He grabbed a corner of the bed sheet and ripped it back. He saw the clasp on his ankle before he felt it. A leather strap that was furred on the inside with sheepskin to keep him from rubbing on it was tied to the metal bed post with a chain. It was like one of those restraints they strapped mental patients with to stop them getting out of bed. It was only on one ankle, and the chain was long enough to allow freedom of movement in bed, but nothing more.

"Tails, mind telling me why I have a leather bracelet on my leg?" He reached down and inspected it, the simplest of movements on his part bringing up a soft nag of nausea and the beginnings of a soft headache.

"Sonic, I'm going to be honest with you. That strap was my idea. I made the choice."

"Why?"

"Your natural reaction is to run or escape. Every time we've tried to help you, you up and go without informing us."

"Urm, remind me?"

"That time you left the house and crawled to the garage. Then you leave in the X-Tornado. Sonic, just lie down and rest. We'll take care of everything."

"But I feel fine." He brushed the last of the stubborn tears from his cheeks and yanked hard at the restraint. "Take it off me. I don't wanna stay here!"

Tails shut his eyes from Sonic's struggles, shaking his head. Gently he placed a hand on his shoulder. "It won't be long, Sonic. I'm going to stay by your side throughout this. Then we'll be home together. No matter what."

His hands left the soft leather. He tried easing his bare foot up against it, hoping it would slip through, but it was tied tightly to his ankle, making such an attempt impossible unless he had a serrated knife to work at the leather.

"Tails, can ya at least loosen it?" He asked. Tails' confession unheard.

"No." Came his succinct reply. "I won't. This is to help you. Please try to understand."

XXX

Sonic didn't seem to hold a grudge. He played at the leather strap for a time as he couldn't take his mind off it, something a toddler would do. He fidgeted with it for as long as he could before sleep won him out.

Tails left briefly to grab some food and drink for them both, shutting everything else from his mind. He was struggling with acceptance. He already knew Sonic would fail all the tests.

Even the hospital made Tails feel uneasy, and he wasn't even a patient, so he understood how Sonic felt. And his marked distress at the restraint was to be expected. At least he only worried at it for a while before falling back against his pillow. But it was good to talk to him. See those eyes find his. Hear his bright voice. Nothing could have been better.

Not long after Sonic's doze, he was woken by a nurse (much to his disapproval) and wheeled out of the room still in bed to the MRI scanning room down the hall. Tails, Chris and Chuck could not enter due to the magnets and instruments used. Safety permitted them to wait. But they could still look into the large room through the overlooking window that allowed them to observe the procedure. Mildly nuked with soft sedation to keep him from struggling or panicking, Sonic was picked up by one of the assistant male nurses known as Rowan and placed on the MRI holding platform. The table-like platform would then in turn be taken into the giant cyclone MRI machine that looked a lot like a washing machine. Even though it was just a large medical tool, it did look frightening to a child or animal. Its white dome was the hub of the activity, and contained the vital process of delivering the magnetic fields that would in turn visualize detailed internal structures of Sonic's inner workings. Obviously Chelsey saw this procedure as necessary and got straight to it. It was barely six in the morning and already Sonic was undergoing the most stressful of the tests.

Mr. Smith walked into the waiting hall with a fresh bag of hotly baked donuts. "Snacks, anybody?" He asked nicely enough, even though his voice growled with the attempt.

"Why do you still wear that awful costume?" Chuck said, nose pressed up against the observation glass.

"Er, hello? I'm still in the public eye." He said loftily. "The moment I strip myself, they'll arrest me. I did blow up half a city quite by accident. Sonic's to blame for the damage as well. If he simply allowed me to dominate..."

"All right, all right." Chuck waved his hand at the offered treats in short refusal. "You've made your point. So why are you still here?"

"To see how my little blue rat gets along. I have my rights too." He sat down in one of the thin, plastic seats, and then regretted it. The armrests acted like restraints against his massive backend. "I knew I should have dieted like Decoe and Bocoe keep telling me."

Sonic was watching them some six metres away on the other side of the glass while he sat on the table that would eventually take him through the MRI tunnel. He waved meekly at them, smiling with difficulty. He was surrounded by strangers in white coats and tools. The machine behind him was in its last warm-up stages. It began to hum loudly like a giant boiler. Chris waved back. Tails gave the little hog a thumbs-up, mouthing the words: 'you're doing good.'

The MRI was an amazing machine that, in short, scanned the body in full 3D detail to determine any problems using the body's own atoms and water molecules. The process wasn't a quick one, and the noise in there would be unbearable, but it was an efficient way to find out what was wrong. Tails trusted the doctor here. He knew she would do all she could to help them.

Eggman dived into his doughnut bag. Chris watched in revulsion. But he still persisted in his question. "Why use MRI?"

Chuck answered for him, for he knew a little on medical machine, if not a whole lot. "The MRI provides good contrast between the different soft tissues of the body, which makes it especially useful in imaging the brain, muscles, the heart, and cancers compared with other medical imaging techniques such as computed tomography or as we call it: the CT scan. Unlike CT scans or traditional X-rays, MRI uses no ionizing radiation, so it's a safer method for him. The less intrusion in his body, the better."

"That blue pincushion will be up and about in no time." Eggman scoffed between mouthfuls of his sugary treats. "He has this way of recovering. Trust me, this time next week the critter will be hopping and skipping all over my plans like always! Then I'll spend the rest of my life regretting the day I helped him."

"I hope you're right. I really do." Tails almost snapped, unable to press down on his anger. He hadn't slept for the past two nights, least of all in a waiting room trying to get comfortable on a plastic chair. On top of that, the worry was monstrous. The MRI would confirm his greatest fears, or crush it. If it was the latter, he and Sonic could get on with their lives again. But there were still answers to get from Chelsey about the holes he dug in the garden. The washing machine he had taken a liking too. The anger he showed at Chris. The circles he ran in. The deafness. The vomiting. He walked funny. Was it simply just discomfort and confusion brought on by smoke irritation? Or was it going to be worse? And if it was, how could he cope?

He shook his head. _Gotta trust in Sonic. He'll get past this. This is just a bump along our path._

"Still, hope you had insurance on that plane of yours, fox." Eggman added, crashing Tails' train of thought. "Glad to know he doesn't just wreck _my_ machinery."

"It was an accident. He didn't mean it. Machines can be replaced. They're just bits of material and metal. Sonic is irreplaceable. He's my brother and that's all there is to it."

"Ho ho. Quite. Freaks of nature, come together, eh?"

Tails leaned his chin against the palm of his hand. Sonic was being guided to rest on the table. They were putting straps across his thin arms to keep him from moving. Being still was key to accurate readings from the giant, throbbing machine. Sonic could no longer see his family when lying down and this distressed him. He spoke a few words and tried to get free. But the struggles were only short lived. Chelsey came over to his left side and explained something to him. Tails struggled to read her lips. All he could read from her was, 'what color do you like?' But whatever she was saying, it worked. Like magic Sonic was still and quiet. Smiling even.

Chelsey took a step backwards. The table with Sonic strapped upon its tongue was being sucked into the MRI tunnel.

"And down the rabbit hole he goes." Eggman lifted his face towards the window, fingers coated in sticky sugar.

"I reckon something got lodged in his body." Chris said brightly, suddenly sure he had the answer. "Why else would he get so mad at me? He must have been in pain."

"Chris," Tails said in tired vexation, "there is no such object in him."

"Of course there is. Why else would he look like he was going to attack me? You weren't there. Don't forget that the metal object could have gone in so deep, it can't be seen. The MRI scan will bring it up at once. It's the only explanation."

"Chris, quieten down." Chuck never took his eyes from the glass window. "We'll have the results in less than an hour. Then we'll know. It's painful that we have to put him through this. But the sooner we take him home, the better."

"We're going to have the house on lock-down." Tails said. "Even the cat flap is going to be nailed shut."

At this, Eggman laughed.

Sonic disappeared into the giant tunnel. There was only Rowan and Chelsey in the room, going over a few things at a computer terminal at the other end and exchanging notes. Tails got tired of waiting and slipped off his chair and walked down the hall. Chris watched him leave, but remained where he was. Something was still holding him back.

The young kitson waited by the MRI exit door at the opposite end of the waiting room. Here he was more or less left to his own thoughts. He stood leaning up against the walls and crossed his arms. He thought back to the languid summer afternoon when he confronted Sonic over the whole 'soda' incident.

"_Sonic, you scared Chris yesterday. You scared him. What did you manage to do to achieve such a thing?"_

"_I broke his tumbler. He didn't like it."_

"_What else happened?"_

"_I heard an explosion. It made me remember the warehouse. And I lost myself for a moment."_

"_You can recall that?"_

"_Yes!" _

"_Sonic, we're worried about you. You seem okay sometimes, and then you relapse completely. It has something to do with the toxins you breathed in. You may have some light or moderate brain damage, but we can't know for sure unless we get you examined by an official animal physician that also deals with human anatomy."_

"_Tails, I'm fine!"_

Tails let himself slide down to meet the floor. Maybe...maybe Sonic didn't have such damage. Maybe he was overreacting. Sonic had never dug holes before, except that time they needed shelter right away and they were miles away from home. Sonic could have carried him and run home, but he hated rain, and wanted to get out of it as soon as could be. And maybe the explosive soda can had Sonic _worried_ and not traumatically aggressive. The circles when he ran and the crooked walking may have been due to underlining tissue or bone damage. Something the power ring did not touch on because Knuckles shared the power and not all of it was used to heal Sonic's body. Though Tails was not there on the day of the infamous warehouse explosion, but did Sonic land badly on his left side? He had never thought of it that way before. And maybe Sonic had hit his head too, causing temporary paralysis of said side and thus inducing that initial vomiting spell and the poor memory?

Tails felt marginally better. Here he was worrying, and the problem may only be trivial. The MRI would confirm the bruising and Sonic would be discharged from the hospital.

However it still did not explain why he had snuggled up in a washing machine. The mansion was full of guest beds that went unused every day. The night hadn't been too chilly to sleep on the roof either. And it also did not explain his frightening seizure on the kitchen floor after going to get a drink.

While he was debating this, the MRI door opened and Rowan stepped out, taking a few loose files with him. He spotted Tails and nodded down to him. "The test is over, urm, Miles, is it?"

"You can call me Tails." He remembered that he was still on the floor and rose to shake his hand.

"Cool. Anyway, you can see him. We're all done! I still can't believe we have him here in the hospital! He's a celebrity you know! Just as well we're keeping quiet about his arrival here, or else the media would descend on us like locusts!"

Tails nodded and their hands departed. "Did the scan go well?"

"We're still not sure yet." He replied. "We're gonna go over them, make sure we don't make a mistake, but Chelsey will give you the full details. Well, I'll see you later."

Tails nodded at the young nurse and didn't wait any longer. He went into the examination room.

* * *

><p><strong>Dib07: Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, dear readers! IBRH won't get an update until early January. ^_^<strong>

**Take care, all!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Dib07: **Excuse my lateness! Yeah, I know, it's terrible! LOL! Anyway, here is the next update and you are no longer kept hanging! I promise my next one won't be so late!

**Storm337: **You wouldn't want the donuts back! Eggman would have dribbled on them! Nasty! Yeah, Eggman is stupid in his genius! Irony!

**Pandamonium: **Here ya go dear reader! Sorry it is so late! Too late if you ask me! XD Sonic needs to give me a nice hard slap! Thanks for your compliment! I always try and aspire to write more and more thanks to the hedgehog in blue!

**DanceDream: **Ah yes, Cream will probably not understand straight away what is going on, and Amy's reaction could be anything! And Knuckles... man o man! I hope they reinforce their walls in the Thorndyke mansion! XD And yeah, Tails is getting the blow now. I just hope they can all cope later on! Oh, and you'll see how Eggman takes this all in too. So far yes, he has said very, very little since he rushed Sonic into the hospital. Either he is on a guilt-trip, he is merely taking the information in (who knows why) or he's plotting something else. But he is going to need to pay the hospital parking fee for the next day or so! XD

**Hope you had a happy new year, DanceDream! All the best! And sorry for the long update!**

**And thank you for the reviews everybody! Yippeee!**

**XXxxxxxxxxxxxXX**

**Chapter 11:**

"Sonic!"

"Hey, bud." He glanced up at the approaching kitson as Chelsey undid his straps. His little platform had appeared out the other end of the machine. The dreadful din of noise had stopped and only the gentle hum of the computer terminals against the far wall could be heard. "Second worst experience in my life."

"What was your first?" Tails smiled.

"You kneeing me in the groin when you were such a little, cute cub." He grinned right back, eyelids all droopy. The soft sedation was still in full swing. The reason why they had been so gentle introducing a new tranquilizer into his system was simply due to his terrible nausea and small size. Already Chelsey was injecting him with the immediate antidote. The act of the needle going in almost went unnoticed too, until he turned round to see what she was doing to his arm. He yelped out and flinched away, taking his arm with him. "What are you d-doing?" He asked, looking more startled and mistrustful than angry or annoyed.

"It's okay. It's done now anyway. I was just helping your system wake up a little bit more." Chelsey explained. She went to brush at the jab wound with a cotton bud, at which he growled at. With a sheepish smile, she took something red out of her pocket. It was a lollipop. "Here, as promised. The last red one I had left."

"I want a whole bag of these next time and a chocolate cake for every day that I'm still here!" He used one hand to rub at a droopy eye.

"If the MRI scans are negative for damage, you won't need to undergo any more tests. You can go home today, in fact, with a little packet of prescribed medicine."

"Sounds good." Tails watched him incredulously try to leave the table of his own accord, lollipop secured tightly in one gloveless hand. Chelsey already had an arm under his and guided him downwards. His feet scrabbled to find purchase, but as the doctor left him to stand freely, Tails readily replaced her role and took Sonic under his wing.

"Don't ever tell Knux or the others about this. Namely Amy. I felt like I was being eaten and then digested by a machine. Funny, huh?"

Tails walked him back to his room while also pushing the IV line along with them (as the bottom had wheels), stopping frequently on the way there due to Sonic almost losing his balance on several occasions. Chuck, Chris and Eggman weren't coming up to see them which probably meant they were giving Tails the private time that he needed with Sonic. Chelsey however was close behind them. Sonic was after all an intensive care patient, and was never allowed out of sight.

"Why am I _still_ here?" His confusion was still apparent and he glared abhorrently at the long walls of the corridor in mixed revulsion and wonderment.

"This_ is_ a hospital, Sonic. You are a patient here."

"Well...I _did_ keep being sick I guess... that was gross! Another bit of information you are not to tell Rad Red! Or Shadow! Or Eggman! Or Cream!"

"Yeah. Chuck's never used a mop so much in his life before now!"

They got back to his room after Chelsey saw the trip as too long and proceeded to plonk the hapless hedgehog in a wheelchair. He made it clear he did not like being touched. She had won part of his trust over with the lolly, but as he did not know her and naturally associated her with needles, the eating machine and any other hospital device, he tensed in her touch, utterly terrified. He did not know what she was going to do next to him, and this unknowing was the worst part of it. "How long is this stay? Why are you doing this to me? A wheelchairs usually this slow?"

Chelsey wheeled him over to his bed and Tails did the honours of helping him back in. "You are hopeless sometimes, brother." Tails answered for him, helping Sonic out of the chair. He looked first up at Chelsey, then his brother, not wanting to get back into bed but having little choice. "I know what you're thinking, Sonic. It isn't going to work."

"Well, at least the bed is high up. I like that. And it's comfy too. I suppose I could put up with that for another day_, if_ I have to."

"It's certainly better than washing machines, huh?" He waited for his brother to challenge him, but he did not. Sonic climbed back into bed which took some effort, and threw the covers back over his body as fast as he could as though to secure himself away from the doctor.

"Why was I put in an eating machine?" He then inquired, looking from one to the other.

Chelsey smiled from his childish observation and put the notes down on the desk by the bed before putting on a pair of transparent gloves. "It's an MRI scanner, not an eating machine! However, it does a marvellous job of performing the duties of an X-Ray, only better."

"I remember you, now." Sonic admitted, undoing the wrappings from the lolly, "you helped me when I first came in here, I think."

"That I did. You weren't very co-operative even then. But I've dealt with cats bigger than you, and little human children who think they can pull a tantrum on me."

"I wanna see these cats." His ears were down, and he was still evidently sulky. The fatigue from the tranquilizers did not help his mood.

He was about to put the lolly in his mouth when the doctor proceeded to strip his bedcovers back. He went to curl up immediately to defend himself against her, and all Tails could do was watch. But the kitson relaxed by a margin when he saw that she was only running her hands down his back and massaging his abdomen for possible soreness. Maybe the MRI had revealed something she was not quite willing to let on yet?

"Stop it! Please!" Sonic's demands were a mix of laughter and fear. When he was tense and agitated, a mere touch became ticklish.

"Sonic, stop making a scene!" Tails hissed quietly, feeling slightly embarrassed.

Chelsey, though gentle in her examinations, must have hit a tender spot. Sonic's innate laughter turned into a sharp whimper of pain and he snapped his eyes shut against it, curling up even more tightly than thought possible.

"I'm deeply sorry." Chelsey said at once, her fingers hovering over his flank. "I didn't realize you'd be so sore. It won't happen again."

"Excuse me," Tails cried, "but why is he sore there?"

"Inflammation." She replied instantly, though it didn't sound like the whole truth. "Still need to define the whys and the how."

"Urm, Doctor?" Tails persisted a little shyly, "we all think he's going deaf. Can you check this out for me please?"

"Of course."

"Am not." Sonic didn't look particularly pleased. "I can hear okay, just not all of the time."

Chelsey fetched a small device that looked like it had an inverted funnel at the end. A tiny torch glared to life near the end of the plastic tip and she flicked another switch on the side of the small plastic toy-like tool. It began to emit clicking noises.

Sonic peered at it with the same respect he'd use for a grenade.

Chelsey smiled. "I do love your expressions, Sonic. You have so many, all of the time!"

"I hope that thing is c-clean!"

"Always."

Tails gently held Sonic down but he did not struggle this time. He looked too exhausted to try and escape.

Her cool, delicate fingers closed over his cranium, the other upon his left ear as she carefully eased the tool into his canal. Tails watched him pull a face. He tried to draw his ears down flat to dissuade her from examining them, which of course didn't work. Tails would have laughed if not for the situation being so serious. Once she checked his right ear, she explored the other one. Sonic gripped his bed sheets with one fist, growling disdainfully. He put up with her as much as he could, remembering the evening he had first come into her care. She had helped him. She soothed away the discomfort and pain even if he had to be touched more times that he could count. But more importantly she got him to breathe again. He had been asphyxiated with his own eternal coughing. And she had soothed it all away.

Ears done and checked, she switched her tool for another and shone a bright, offensive light into Sonic's dull pupils. Eyes hooded already, it was easy for him to turn away and close them.

"I've reached your patience levels, huh?" Chelsey put the instrument down. "That's okay. I have what I needed anyway. Sonic, you have a burst ear drum, which should heal itself in four weeks, roundabout. There was some discharge in both ears, so I'll supply you with medicine to clear that up. How well can you hear me right now?"

"Okay." He returned simply. "Depends on where my ears are...pointing I guess."

"Anyway, that's it from me. I bid you both good day and I'll leave you to rest, Sonic. You've done well. You really are a hero like the news reports say. If a little sulky!"

He sat up and recovered himself with the bed sheets, looking feasibly worried. But the doctor was true to her word and muttered another goodbye before leaving the IC room.

"Why am I always the centre of attention?" He popped the lolly into his mouth, happy and relaxed now that all invaders had left the room.

"Because you like danger, and look where it put you!"

"I was only fighting Eggman." He spoke round the lolly stick.

"You know what, Sonic?"

"Hmmm? I know plenty of things."

"You seem... I dunno. More yourself lately. Like, your thoughts are a bit more stable. Either that or I am imagining it. Now, when we get home, where will you sleep? Roof or the comfy cot in Chris's room?"

"That laundry machine. The one I shoved blankets in."

"That's the washing machine. It's used to contain water! Besides, why do you want to sleep in that old thing?"

"I couldn't smell water." He popped the sweet out of his mouth. "You can burrow it if you want."

"That's not what I'm asking. Forget it." He huffed out a sigh. "Sonic, I want you to do something for me."

"What, buddy?"

"I want you to rub the tip of your nose with one hand, and rub your tummy with the other. Can you do that for me?"

"Urm, okay...sure." He placed the lolly on the table beside him, and proceeded to rub his nose. However, Tails stopped him.

"No. At the same time."

"What? Why?"

"Just do it. Please."

His confusion kept sending Tails shards of ice cold worry. "Like...this?" He was attempting it, kind of. One finger swirled away on the tip of his nose, but only when he stopped performing the same pattern on his tummy. He could not do both tasks at once, no matter the encouragement.

"Never mind, Sonic. Finish your lolly, then you'd better take a nap. You'll be home soon, I promise."

"No more tests?"

"No more tests."

But there was. And quite a few too that Chelsey had got setup. Some hours later, after he had had the briefest of naps, she gave him a sheet of white A4 paper with the simple instructions to draw the straightest line across the page he could possibly manage. With the pencil given to him, he drew that line. Only the line curved erratically upwards. Almost childishly, he drew the remaining line on paper back down again as if this could make up for it. Chelsey ticked the test off as a clear fail on paper.

The next one resulted in him passing a ball to another and then catching it again. Because his legs were rebellious to his commands, he sat down to perform this activity with Tails on the floor of his ICU room. With three metres of floor separating each other, Tails cross-legged on the carpet, he threw the basket ball as softly as he could at his brother. The ball was big enough to grab and catch. But the ball bounced from Sonic's desperate reach each and every time. The hedgehog could throw the ball back, but his hands tried to catch the ball too early or too late. He overcompensated and did not have the accuracy to catch the ball at any one try. This too was a fail.

To keep him active, Chelsey guided him over to a painted white line that reached down to the other side of the room which was a fair five yards. His only instructions were to walk along the line and not stop until he reached the end. Tails and Chris were posted very close by in case he fell. Leaving Chelsey's hands of support, he made for the line. But as he could not walk straight, this proved to be the hardest of the tests despite its simplicity. He wondered accidently to the left and had to go all the way round to join up with the line again as he seemed unable to turn right. Sometimes he looked like he was going to fall, as though he were balancing on a rail and not the flat surface of floor. He whisked his arms out for balance, but even this resulted in wonky walking.

The outcome of the test was his third fail.

His next trial was to go up the stairs and then down it again without help. Sonic cheated and went up on all fours, refusing to walk in his normal bipedal gait despite Tails' yelling instructions. Coming down was a difficult challenge, even more so using all fours. He got stuck half way and so Chuck had to resort into carrying him down.

Another fail hit the list of fails.

Tired of tests and instructions, Sonic was allowed to sit at the table for the last set. Again he was given paper and a pen, told only to write his name and his home address. His handwriting was usually elegant, if a little scrawled because of its delivered haste, as he usually never wrote. But as he wrote his name, being careful how he drew the S and the o, it was clear how much slower he was writing. The usual style of handwriting was still intact, but the speed at which he did it was a little saddening to watch. Tails wanted to reach out and help him, but he knew it wouldn't be allowed and would result in an automatic fail unless Sonic retried.

Next came the address. Sonic leant back in the chair, remembering only his home address back on his own planet.

"It's 72, Maple Street." Tails whispered as quietly as he could.

"62 Vable Sleet?"

The very last test was to pick up objects that used both hands. The objects were numerous, from plastic cups to soaps, cloths or heavier items such as a small stool or fruit bowl. He picked them all up with ease whilst keeping himself balanced for the heavier objects, and repeated the task a few times as if to mock them. Chelsey ticked off the Pass box. It was the only test he was successful at.

Rewarded for putting up with them, Sonic was allowed to sleep back in his IC room where the chamber was darkened and a curtain was drawn around his bed to give him all the privacy and enclosed comfort he needed. Exhausted and drained, Sonic was out like a light not long after using the hospital cubicle and having mushy rice to eat. Covered in blankets to keep him snug and warm, Sonic dozed deeply on his side; head barely visible from the blankets. Tails regretfully left him to sleep. He could have sat on a chair inside the protective wall of curtain around the bed, but he was motioned by the female doctor to come with her in the open doorway. He left Sonic's room and followed her into a separate room beside his ICU chamber. "He won't go anywhere just yet, don't worry. I know the results from the MRI including the tests, and my first professional duty is to inform the patient, but this is a delicate matter and I want to inform his family first."

The first early waves of dread speared into the kitson. He did not like where this was going.

Several minutes later, they were all sitting in the room with her including Dr. Eggman. He remained at the back of the small group as always. It was strangely perverse how he was still here. At first Tails was convinced that the fat man only stayed because he gained some kind of iniquitous, sick delight from seeing Sonic suffer. A depravity born from years ago. But if that was the case, why choose to help and bring him here? And why did Dr. Eggman look calm and serious in the back row? He didn't look happy or content.

"The MRI gave us clean, clear results." Chelsey was saying, looking at them all in turn. "There's no massive bruising on his body and no broken bones or internal bleeding. His lungs are incredibly inflamed though, due to the toxic fumes he breathed in, as you told me upon our first meeting. However, I'm happy that he did all the tests and he's been very patient with me these last couple of days. Also, due to our care his breathing is stable which I am very pleased with. But..." Tails could see it coming. He felt very alone in the room. Alone and unsure with the premonition already before him after so long. "I do have some bad news. He is brain damaged. It's only going to get worse, and there is little we can do to help. The monoxide poisoning has mixed with his bloodstream very deeply, and has injured his kidneys and stomach."

The weight of the information she had given him dug into his mind like teeth gouging for the soft flesh of his mental stability. He had known, all along. But it still didn't make it _any_ easier. All at once Tails wanted to puke, run out the room or just burst into tears. Instead a numbing chill gripped him tight, and all he could do was stare at her in open dejection and disbelief. He could not wake out of this nightmare.

Christopher looked baffled and not ready to believe her confession. It was all too sudden for him. Chuck on the other hand looked restless. Both hands cupped his cheeks. He was wise and old enough to touch on any understanding of this and the future consequences.

Chelsey continued as bravely as she could. "It explains everything, from the frontal headaches he's discussed with me, the dizziness he frequently gets and his general malaise. Damage to the brain leads to seizures and vomiting, as you have well experienced. Also, brain damage, no matter how mild or severe, tends to lead to a condition called psychosis. Now, those suffering psychosis may exhibit personality changes and thought disorder. Depending on its severity, this may be accompanied by unusual or bizarre behavior, as well as difficulty with social interaction and impairment in carrying out daily life activities. This explains the digging of holes. He may not see it as wrong or bizarre. He may exhibit these activities purely for simple enjoyment. His brain sees it as a simple action fulfilment that produces a warren."

The room got colder. Tails didn't look at the others. He was far too consumed with dread and despair. How long did brain damage last? It couldn't go on forever, could it? Sonic always got better.

"Now, him sleeping in a washing machine is common animal behaviour that I believe is_ not_ linked to brain damage." Chelsey overviewed her notes quickly before pressing on. "You told me he usually sleeps on the roof of the house. He either could not mange to get up there, or couldn't remember how to leave the house. Not feeling well, he obviously felt more vulnerable, so he made a nest in a laundry machine where he naturally felt safer."

Tails left his chair.

He was going to throw up. He felt all eyes on him, but he continued regardless. He turned the cold knob on the door and hurried out, snapping it shut behind him. The hallway air felt cooler, but didn't do much to dampen the sweat running down his fur. He could still hear her voice through the door; "his lungs are no better. Inhaling even relatively small amounts of the gas can lead to hypoxic injury, neurological damage and death." There was a flutter of paper as he could imagine her leafing through her notes again. "Carbon monoxide is very toxic, and it is easily absorbed into the lungs. Thus resulting in a shorter lifespan. He may not have lost any brain function straight after the incident. Delayed neurological damage occurs in up to 50% of poisoned patients after 2 to 40 days. His loss of consciousness during the event while poisoned sadly increases the chance of developing delayed symptoms. What you are experiencing is only the beginning of his mental breakdown."

"Speak in English." He heard Chuck retort angrily. It was clear from his voice that he couldn't quite understand what Chelsey was getting at and this frustrated him even more. "I don't fully understand. Are you saying that his behaviour is going to get worse?"

"Yes. In layman's terms, his brain will continue to disintegrate and his mood may yet further change. He can become depressed or delirious. Before you jump to conclusions, we do have medication to lighten the symptoms, though there is no cure. As areas of his brain begin to shut down, other areas of his brain may kick into gear and he may develop new ways of dealing with any given situation, as we only use 45% of our brain. But what he will mainly need is family therapy from all of you. This ranges from using pictures to communicate with, always knowing how he is feeling and if he understands and helping him to walk properly. He will also never be allowed to be in any one place on his own. He will need constant supervision. You may need to purchase toys or gear to keep his mind stimulated as much as possible to keep the injured parts of his brain alive as much as possible. The soda accident that involved you, Christopher, was a little harder to explain. It may be due to the traumatic stress he suffered. If not, his one working ear may have been oversensitive at the time and the noise distressed him."

Chuck overrode her. "Well, what kind of medicine will he need to take?"

"They are all oral medicines. These will include daily antipsychotic medicine. Anti-nausea tablets and inhalers. He will not be allowed any aspirin or paracetamol as this will induce vomiting. I'm sorry. I really am, but this is the reality you are _all _facing. You have to come to terms with it. The quicker the better."

Tails banged his head against the concrete wall by the door. _Please stop this! Please let it be over! None of this is real!_

Chelsey continued as confidently as she could in the room with the others. "Cognitive rehabilitation therapy is a program to help impaired individuals to help restore normal function or to compensate for his odd left hemisphere of balance. It's almost like he's had a stroke. Maybe he did, very lightly. But even a light stroke is enough to paralysis one side of his body depending on which side of the brain was affected. The MRI scan revealed that the left side of his brain was more damaged, affecting the right side of his body." There was a shuffle of nervous feet. Possibly Chuck's as he left his chair, perhaps overcome with emotion.

"This is lunacy!" Tails heard his voice crack in sadness. "It was just a little odd behaviour he showed! He can still talk fine! How much worse is he going to get?"

"We're not sure, but the damage has been done. He may lose all sense of logic and understanding. He may not be able to form sentences within a month or two. He may be unable to separate dream from reality. What matters is that we medicate him straight away. Give him the treatment he needs to at least slow down the process."

In Chuck's desperation, Tails heard him call out Mr Smith's real name. "Dr. Eggman, is there nothing you can do for him?"

"I am Mr. Lucien Smith, you fool. I can do nothing either. Do I look like a miracle worker to you?"

Tails left the door and raced hard to the nearest hospital bathroom for the ICU's patients. There he crashed into a cubical from the haste and puked heavily into the toilet bowl. He retched up all that was inside of him and afterwards, exhausted from the effort, he pressed on the sensor button to flush it and watched it all be sucked away. He leaned on the toilet rim, panting. If they had sought help sooner for Sonic, would have things been less...bad?

"No..." He muttered aloud, hating the taste of bile in his mouth. The warehouse explosion had set it all in motion. All it took was Sonic to breathe in that deadly gas long enough and then asphyxiate. What they did for him afterwards meant little in the long run. He couldn't blame Chris. That day had long been and gone, and the boy had been lucky to get Sonic's breathing restarted at all. He could have died that very same day.

That day Chelsey had examined his flanks too and accidently hurt him: it was to feel how inflamed his kidneys were to correspond with the MRI imaging.

He stared deeply into the toilet water, memorized by his own haunting reflection. He wanted to sit here forever, and wish time would just stop. But he had to leave the toilet. He had to get on with life. For a moment he wanted to hate Eggman more than ever. Eggman caused the explosion with his stupid machinery. But then, he had_ always_ used machinery. He and Sonic had always been at war. It had just been an unfortunate day where Sonic came out worse. A lot worse.

Even playful cubs had accidents in their games. Eevn Tails had said before to Knuckles some time ago:

'_I think Sonic just got caught out. He does have this unfortunate habit of throwing himself into danger body first. Something like this was bound to happen.'_

Tails sat thinking. Should he believe everything Dr. C. Clover said? Or rebuke her findings altogether? Sure, he had failed all the tests except one, but he wasn't exactly in the best of health anyway.

He left the toilet and leaned against the cold cubicle wall. With dawning horror, Tails remembered something Chuck said after Sonic's very first convulsion all those days ago:

'_The major concern now is what the later effects will be for him. Carbon monoxide poisoning can create delayed neurological manifestations. This could affect his intellectual functions and give him memory loss, trouble walking. As we've already seen, acute poisoning delivers seizures, even severe shock.'_

Ironic really. After the MRI scan, Sonic was agitated; yes, but happy. Much more himself. Was it because they were medicating him already though?

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><p><strong>TBC<strong>


	12. Chapter 12 The End

**Dib07: **Thank you all for your support during this Sonic X fanfiction. This story honestly would not even have existed if it wasn't for you; the reader. And I mean that. Sonic's Need got lovely feedback and this was the requested sequel. I hope you enjoy this last chapter! It is a shame it has come to an end at last, and its conclusion may leave people wanting more, but either way, thank you all. It's been great. And thank you FullRings for that amazing, adorable, special picture of the washing machine you did that I hold dear. Thank you :)

**DanceDream: **Haha! Ah yes, you shall see much of it this chapter; about Tails and Eggman working together and Knuckles having an inspirational fantasy idea. It does seem very final with Sonic, doesn't it? I do feel sorry for him, quite a lot actually. He doesn't get much luck when he's with me, does he? XD But even so, at least the good doctor has diagnosed it and he's getting the right meds, that's gotta account for something, right? Or, we hope anyway. What's really good/or bad in this chapter, is that Sonic's life is spiralling out of his control, but if he doesn't notice, is it so bad? It will be on his family, however, and that's the hardest part.

Yes, Sonic is one very stubborn little guy and he did try his hardest! He did pass on at least one test, and despite what might happen to him eventually, at least he is happy!

That was really, really funny about Sonic (him being the someone with the newly acquired special need) lol! Poor guy! And what you said becomes really apparent in this chapter with all the...special needs. :(

I suppose he could still prove Chelsey wrong. You'll just have to see? :P

You are an inspiration as always to me, DanceDream. :) Thank you!

p.s I've slowed down on that project, but thanks for asking! XD

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><p><strong>Chapter 12 – Last Chapter<strong>

Chuck did not seem to suffer the same cord of misery like what Tails and Chris were exhibiting. He did a fine job of the old guest room – a room usually dedicated for all sorts of use, whether it be a room for one of Chris's friends who might be staying over, or a room simply as an 'extra.'

The hours slid away like old rainwater as Chuck renovated the room into something a bit more functional. As the older man was arranging furniture, and adding things, or removing them in sudden fluxes of mad, inspirational excitement, Chris and Tails tended to Sonic, who, by now, was quite worn out from all the attention. The happiness to be back home was clear on his face. The hospital had been a huge complex; with enormous beds that practically seemed to swallow up tiny patients. Also, the sterile white walls, doors and opaque, colorless sheets and furniture seemed to dull everything and everyone that stepped within its infinite boundaries. The hospital felt like it had its own time zone too. Hours went by just like normal hours in the outside world. But in the hospital, the _minutes_ had become hours and everything moved at a slow, deliberate crawl.

Willing to show how able he was, Sonic had walked happily from the car and through the front door, where he got jumped upon from Amy and Cream. Their cheerful cries echoed down the neat and tidy corridors, and Ella rushed out to see what was going on. It was a joyful reunion, and Sonic met their questions as carefully and as truthfully as he could. No doubt he had already forgotten much of what the doctor had informed him of, but that didn't matter. He was home. On thin, shaky legs. A cheerful, peaceful smile corroding what worry might have been there. And the mansion was pleasantly warm despite the cold summer morning outside.

Eggman's mysterious vanishing act wasn't even talked about, and Tails didn't even think about him. The man had indeed left the hospital sometime during the night long before Sonic's leaving papers would be filled out and filed away. And that was okay. Tails had wanted Eggman to go. His strange appearance and constant presence had been racking at his brain all the while with formless, indecisive and unanswerable questions. He was never bold enough to confront Eggman. Everything had still been too sensitive, and he was the one who did bring Sonic to the A & E accordingly.

Amy he had rang from the hospital one day before and explained Sonic's diagnosis. Her first reaction was predictable. Anger and disbelief. She cried shrilly into Tails' ear, demanding that he was wrong and he should hurry up and spit out the truth. He was persistent however, and clearly upset, Amy had hung up. She rang back again some two minutes later, a lot more calm and disappointed, all anger having gone cold. "Is he really damaged...like that?"

"Yeah, Amy. He is. I didn't believe it either at first, so I completely understand your anger. Just... just go easy on him when he gets home, okay?"

"You make me sound like I'm some kind of husband-beater." She had been on the verge of tears that day on her phone. But at least she knew the truth.

Sonic was on the sofa, digressing what had happened to him to the girls with as much detail as was allowed a hedgehog with brain damage. He slurred sometimes in his words, and it was only slight. A tiny indent in his usual, smooth voice. Cheese sat on his knees like a plushie and was looking up at Sonic with avid delight. Cream at times looked shocked at the story he was telling, while Amy had taken to holding his hand. He did not seem to notice. Chris was upstairs helping Chuck with the rom. He had spoken little since coming home with the hedgehog.

And then there it was. The doorbell. It gave out a few, barking tuneful jangles that sent Ella into a storm of legs as she rushed to answer the door. Tails hovered in the lounge doorway where Amy did a little tinkering laugh behind him as Sonic explained how massive the MRI machine mouth was.

"It was a long tunnel," he was saying, "and hummed like an oven, only louder!"

Ella opened the door without checking through the peephole first. Bright, cheerless sunlight dropped down upon her plump form and a man moved in to block the cuprous light. "Dr. Eggman!" She exclaimed in morbid shock.

"Did the MRI thingy hurt?" Amy asked.

"No." Came his brother's reply. "Not one little bit. Dr. Chelsey was really cool. She made sure I was okay as often as she could ask."

"Were you scared?"

"Nah!"

Ella stepped back from Eggman's blackened shadow; face a mask of shocked dismay. Tails, not the least bit baffled, surprised or astonished, stepped into that bleak, concrete shadow and looked up at him. He was standing on their wide, open porch, eyes always unreadable behind his black eye lenses. Also, his heavy, ginger moustache hid his lips, so Tails could not tell if he was smirking, grimacing or if his expression was merely neutral.

"Ella, could you make us all some tea please?" Tails asked her. He was aware that she was still standing just out of sight from the door and was wringing her gloved hands together in anxious worry. He supposed that seeing Eggman at the door so suddenly was like seeing a menacing, collarless Doberman in a child's playground.

"Err, yes..." She stumbled the words out, eyes still heavily regarding Eggman's shadow as it bled out onto the porch. She did a quick whirl and turned to go towards the kitchen at the bottom of the hall and past the staircase.

"Yes, can I help you?" Tails asked, eyes already locating the door so he knew how far he would have to reach for it so that he could slam it shut when the time seemed appropriate. As he waited for a response, his tired eyes peeked at a large cardboard box planted solidly behind Eggman's feet. The cardboard looked old and rather bruised. But it looked interesting.

"I just stopped by to send my sincerest condolences." He sounded neutral. Expressionless. Like a teacher philosophising about maths in a dull, monotone voice.

"This has got to be a trick." He was surprised how flat his own voice sounded. It was almost challenging in a way, dark and resentful. It made him feel braver. Since Sonic's relapse he felt very protective of him. And fearless. If Eggman was asking for trouble, Tails hoped he had an ambulance waiting because today the kitson was not going to mess around.

"No trick." Again that tireless monotone. He held his hands at his back. The big cardboard box sat like an abused, yet loyal pet. "I just came to say I'm sorry. I didn't mean to handicap anybody. We both had a bad day, but it was as much Sonic's fault as it was mine. You don't have to worry about me anymore. I'm done."

This was the last thing Tails thought he'd ever hear Eggman utter. _I'm done._

"Done?" Tails narrowed one eye. He could hear the cool, shy laughter of Sonic in the lounge. He was still enjoying the company of his friends and wasn't even the slightest bit aware of what was going on at the front door.

"Yes. You heard me. Done. All of it."

"I don't believe you."

Eggman suddenly threw his hands up in rebuke to Tails' fervent disbelief. "Fine. Fine. Be that way." He went to turn. Leave and go down the white steps of the porch that led down the gravel path and towards the main gates. Eggman was really leaving. Really going away. There was to be no tricks. Not today or any other day.

A desperate surge that suddenly flooded its way up Tails' throat caught Eggman into a standstill.

"Wait!"

The bald man did so. Mild amusement did not curl his features. Contempt did not soil his brow into a scabrous frown. "What is it?"

"Why? Why did you stay at the hospital with us? Why did you bring Sonic to help?"

"You already know the answer, my furry pest."

But he did not give it. And Tails didn't think on it. Instead he went for the next best thing; "make a machine that can reverse the damage that's been done to Sonic. I know you can do it. You're supposed to be a genius, right?" _Right?_

Dr. Eggman did frown then. A long, puzzled one that looked alien on his usually proud, robust features of smugness. "I am not a god, fox. Do not presume that I can procure miracles."

"But... I can help! The two of us, working together!" His steely determination, the affront he had so hastily applied earlier had totally peeled back now, revealing a shattered fox clinging to whatever hope was left. "Nothing is impossible!"

"Don't live on dreams." He turned to face him fully, the sunlight strong on his back. He crossed his arms against his chest, the frown still deep, cavernous creases on his forehead. "So after all this, _all this,_ you want me to help him? Now? That offers a chance to resume our rivalry? After years of trying to kill him so that I can get on with world domination? Yes. I would." Tails physically had to take a step back. Today was still so full of surprises after all. "But destroyed or dead brain cells cannot be revived so simply. It is beyond my abilities. It would be like me trying to make a cure for Alzheimer's. It is something I cannot do and even if the cure can be made, my field of expertise is not health and biology. I am sorry." It was the most sincerest apology Dr. Eggman could ever make, and Tails was grateful at the attempt he made even if the dilemma at hand was insolvable. Dr. Eggman was a megalomaniacal scientist after all whose every idea became a bitter crusade.

Eggman stood, as if awaiting further reprimand from Tails. Of which there were none. Only a defeated, lonesome silence floated between them. Then Dr. Eggman did the only thing he could; he walked away.

Tails' eyes did nothing but focus on the welcome mat at the door and waited for the mad scientist to leave through the towering high, black gates at the bottom of the gravel path. When all seemed still and calm once more, Tails raised his chin and spied for the man. But he truly was gone. Leaving nothing but his lingering scent of dusky, old English cologne and of course the weathered, old cardboard box. Tails approached it wearily, somewhat excited. The box he figured, would contain either a trap or perhaps some form of help for Sonic. Either way, his curiosity spiked and before he could help himself, he had walked up to it and was parting the folds of sorrel, damp material away so that he could get at what was inside. His disappointment was like a hard, heavy rock that hit his insides. He recognised the material as soon as he laid his eyes on it. In the box was nothing but the parts Dr. Eggman had saved from the blackened remains of the X-Tornado. There was the gear change lever. The communications headset (most of it was melted), the Black Box (containing all voice recordings and plane activity), and finally a few metal plates and what was left of the plane's right wheel. The rubber still smelt of something burning. Tails glared at it most angrily as if the box contained animal bones. It was hard to come to terms with Eggman's rueful, changed behaviour. Hard to come to terms with Sonic's degeneration. Hard to accept the present time.

He turned away from the box and stepped back inside the tender warmth of the house. He slammed the door shut, leaving the Tornado's remains outside like cast-offs. In the room next door, Sonic gave another gleeful giggle. Cream was talking now, her voice faint and milky in the background.

The great grandfather clock chimed eleven o'clock in the spindly hallway. Ella was returning with a dishcloth in one hand. "Everything okay, there, Tails? What did that dirty man want?"

"He just wanted to say goodbye." He answered her numbly.

XXX

"Wow!" Was the first thing out of his mouth. He wondered into the room with Tails at his side. Chuck had done a really good job for an old man, and Mr. Tanaka had helped him pull it off. The guest room certainly did not look the same anymore. Where it once was a dull, neutral room for visiting friends and colleagues who worked with Christopher's father and needed a bed to rest in, here was a place transformed. Two walls were a glamorous red and two were white to keep it balanced. The floor was a padded, naturally soft white carpet that felt bouncy as they walked across it. The single guest bed had gone, and was replaced by a modern bunk bed fitted with rails and a soft, padded ladder that connected the two. Also there was a closet, dresser and drawers, potted plants along the windowsill, a bookcase full of books and a desk and table. To Sonic it looked like a grand, glorified playroom padded for extra safety as if they were dealing with an accident-prone son. But he liked the colors, and he liked the comfort the room seemed to give off.

"Here's your new room, Sonic." Chuck wiped the sweat from his brow on an old rag. "It has everything you could ever need."

"Thanks to my speed, this only took a few hours." Mr. Tanaka looked evidently pleased. "Home comfort has always been highly valued in my family." He came by and gave Sonic a pat on the head as he went to go. "I'll be right back," he informed them, and left.

Chuck came forwards too and filled the red table with a pile of books. Sonic came over, curious. His legs were painfully stiff from having been forced to rest at the hospital, and though being bedbound had been short, it still had atrophied him more than he liked. "Thanks, Chuck. I think I'll like it here, it's cool." He nodded at the books and magazines. "What are those for?"

"They are puzzle books." Chuck informed, his smile slipping a little. "It'll help keep you stimulated. Keep you from getting bored. We can't have you leaving the house to have a run."

"Suuure." He folded his arms. Tails was the pro at puzzles. They were okay, but they didn't hold the same fascination for him. He flipped through a puzzle book regardless while Tails surveyed the room with resentful eyes. The puzzles were begrudgingly simple. The pages consisted of dot-to-dots. Number games. Color coded memory puzzles. Spelling activities. Just looking at them made him groan in boredom. He put the book down and took a giddy step back.

"Now, Sonic," Chuck started coolly. Gently. "This may upset you, it may not. But I am going to give you the ground rules. If you break them, we're going to give you a bath."

Sonic traded the old man's serious look for a lopsided grin. His arms remained folded. "Ground rules, you say? Isn't that for kids?"

"Well..." He paused, and then shook his head as if to remind himself that he had to control the situation and stay focused. "No going outside without permission, Sonic. No sleeping in washing machines, no going on roofs and no disappearing."

"Can't I run?"

Chuck sighed. "Yes, you can. I've got a treadmill ready for you. It's one of those running machines they show in sport commercials. You run on a conveyer belt and up the speed as you see fit. I suppose I can fit you into a strap that'll hold you on the conveyor belt so that it stops you from veering too far left because your balance is off. There is also one other rule that's more important than all the rest."

"Well then, let's hear it."

"Dr. Chelsey has prescribed you with lots of medicine. Mostly pills. You need to take five different tablets every morning and evening. They won't taste nice, but you can chew them or swallow them. Either way, you have to take them."

"To stop my brain from melting?" His carefree smile didn't falter. Chuck however looked less than impressed with his response. "I am not going to start drooling or chewing on the carpet. I'm fine. I really do like this room though. Is it for Chris? He always was into cool stuff. This room's missing a mirror, though, if ya ask me."

"Sonic, this room is for you."

"Yeah, right!" He watched Tails nod his head. His ears crinkled back. "...right."

The room viewed, he followed his young brother towards the kitchen. The fact of 'his' room being on the ground floor was not lost on him, and the fact that one of the many bathrooms in this mansion was also near to the room.

Still, he couldn't complain. He was home, back in Christopher's mansion and far, far away from that yucky hospital. Okay, the nurses were kind, and the doctor was even better. They had made him feel much, much better and all the nausea that was caking his insides had vanished. They took it away. And the febrile sweats he had every waking hour. He supposed the new pills would do the same things, but he had never taken pills in his life, and he wasn't exactly keen on the whole routine of these pills either. "Say, buddy?" Tails' ears caught his voice and he fell back a step to walk beside him. "How long do I need to take these tablets for? A day? A week at most?"

"No, Sonic."

"Okay then, a... a month?"

"No." His shook his head to exaggerate the negative. "It's LT."

"Long Term?"

"Life Time."

"Hoo boy. That is a long time!" He failed to see Tails' shy, glimmer of tears on the corners of his eyes. "Say, how did I end up in the hospital anyways? All I remember is the X-Tornado..." He decided to stop himself. "Sorry, bud. I have been getting myself into trouble lately, haven't I? You haven't told old Knuckle-head, have you? He'll bust a gut."

"Dr. Eggman took you to the hospital. And Knuckles has a right to know."

He couldn't help but grimace ever so slightly. "Tails, hey? Are you okay? You sound really down." He discerned the kitson dredge up a smile. The tears sparkled and fell down his white-cotton cheeks.

"I'm okay, Sonic! Really. You just scared me is all, back at the hospital. We both hate those places."

The tablets were already lined up on the table for him next to a large plastic cup of juice. He sat at the table and studied the pills in mistrust. Two were pink and round. One was a big, cylinder pill that was half blue and half green. The last two were small button-shaped tablets that looked similar to the ones he took when he had had a fever last spring.

"...is that okay?"

"Hmm?" He asked, turning around and blinking owlishly at Tails as if he had just come out of a long, peaceful sleep.

"I said, we'll do these puzzle books together every night. And we'll sleep in the bottom bunk together. Is that okay?"

"I like sleeping high-up, bud."

"The bottom bunk will be fun. Please?"

Sonic shrugged, honestly perplexed at Tails' wilful determination. "Okay, buddy." He turned back to the irkful problems on the tablemat before him. Pills sucked. He gathered them in one hand and dropped each one into the cuff of his gloves to hide them. That very same afternoon, he took his first undesired bath.

XXX

The first night out of the hospital was at first peaceful and routine. Sonic had been told to go to bed at a little past seven o'clock that evening, and after already having one bath, he obliged after the first asking. He crossed over to the bottom bunk across the bouncy, milky soft carpeting, kicked off his boots and socks and slipped under the sleek, cool bed sheets. The puzzle book he had been thinking over with Tails still lay open on page 5 on the desk with a pencil and eraser next to it. Tails quietly shut the door to once he had turned the bedroom lights off, and left the door open a jar to allow the hallway lamplight to spill through.

Christopher had been busy getting ready for school come the morning, and had his bag packed and lunch already made. He had been unnaturally quiet all day. Sonic had been the one to cheer him up. Perhaps subconsciously feeling the depression feeding off of Chris, Sonic had dived to the rescue and had brought him out of his shell. In time, Chris explained his anxiety and the blue hedgehog assured him right back. "Me and Eggy were having accidents all the time, dude! One of us was bound to wind up hurt. Besides, I don't regret what happened and neither should you. Life is too short to regret. Now, wanna play Black Aces, was it?"

"Black Jack!" Chris replied, smiling a relieved happy smile.

The lounge was warm and full of family. Knuckles would not arrive for another few days, a week at most. The weather forecast looked bad and if the rains came, the echidna wouldn't be able to travel so freely or so fast. They played Black Jack and then Amy had a go. Cream watched some late night toons on the big silver TV on the sofa beside them, Cheese clapping his short, stumpy hands together in gaiety as they played their card game. Tails sat next to Cream, not wishing to join in. Depression had a way of eating him from the inside, and though Chris was joking around too, at times wrestling the loser to the floor with choking laughter, he could see that the boy's eyes still held that shadow of stubborn sadness. One that would never leave until some miracle erased his sin.

Half six came; governed by the great grandfather clock, and Chuck had Sonic packing for bedtime. The room was soaked with boos and clamours of disappointment. Sonic was more inclined to leave. "Sleeping in a cool bedroom! I can't wait!"

He had been tucked away, a plastic cup of distilled water on the nightstand by the bed. Black Jack continued downstairs until Amy got sulky over her constant defeats and called quits. The TV hummed with senseless, time-filling programs and the evening grew older. Cream had gone up to bed with Cheese. Ella was locking the back door and tidying up the kitchen. That was when Sonic came down, white as a ghost. He had fumbled through the carpeted hallway as if lost – and without his boots and gloves on. And probably he was lost. Waking up, not realizing where he was. Everything suddenly unfamiliar to him. It was not in Sonic's personality to panic. But he started to call out in a darkly anxious shriek somewhere down the hall for someone, _anyone_. Tails had flung himself from the sofa and came out of the lounge to see Sonic a few doors down, the hedgehog checking the broom cupboard for them. "Little bro? Chuck? Amy?" He had asked the shelves containing the dusters, fly traps and polish cans.

What had happened to demonstrate such a reaction?

Stunned, Tails almost floundered straight into him from the speed of his aid. He almost bruised Sonic into a hug. "Sonic? What are you doing?"

The blue hedgehog visibly began to calm down. He blinked heavily a few times, eyes locked onto the kitson as if afraid the fox would disappear the moment he lost his concentration. "Tails? Why am I back in the hospital again?"

The question made Tails' mouth and throat go dry. "Y-You're not in the hospital, Sonic. We're in the Thorndyke home. Chuck made you a nice new room."

"I... I couldn't find you..." There was some parts anger in his voice. Some parts still molested with confusion. His eyelids narrowed and he put a hand to his cranium. "Has there been loud music? My head's been banging constantly."

Chuck came with a cup of sugared water and got Sonic to drink some down. It was only later that they discovered that he had had a migraine.

Tails sat on the edge of the bed, the night cold and empty on his back. Sonic had fallen back to sleep in his bunk bed. The sheets smelling clean and fresh. Chris stood in the doorway like a sleepless sentry, hands in his jean pockets. Chuck was on the phone, talking to Dr. Chelsey. It was past midnight and they were all scared again.

XX

The days would come. Regardless of their fears and unspoken wishes, the days would drop by. And Tails had to deal with the situations as they came. And so they would come. There would be days when Sonic would find the puzzles in Chuck's books harder and harder to accomplish. Even the basic number puzzles and dot-to-dot games would become a grave mystery to him. Knuckles would arrive and be mildly in shock for as long as was warranted, but he would not mock or jest. He may not believe Dr. Eggman's parting ways, but he would believe everything else. Chris would continue school of course, but his concentration would most surely lapse and his grades would fall.

It wasn't going to be all bad though. Tails could create and invent. He was sure he could make something work out. And even if it didn't, Sonic would exhibit more subconscious behaviour. He would become more responsive through contact. Like Dr. Chelsey said, only 45% of the brain was used – or whatever the statistics were.

Yes, there would be many sleepless nights. Sonic would meander the hallways in the fitful darkness once everyone else had gone to bed, wondering what Eggman was scheming now and where the best street sold the tasty sushi dishes and Tails would wake up and find the hedgehog absent from the sheets. He usually found Sonic loitering near the lounge or kitchen, succumbed by his own confusion and it would be up to Tails to lead him back to bed.

The weight was heavy on Christopher. He still blamed himself even though it was Sonic who initially attacked Eggman. Even so, Sonic did not once show depression. He showed other symptoms clearly and sometimes not so much, but he never seemed sad or frustrated with himself. Rather, he laughed pleasantly if he got the puzzles all wrong, or if he suddenly fell when he forgot which foot to place after the other and it was this that kept the family cheerful.

And then one chilly day, Knuckles came pounding on the door as if he had half of the Royal Navy on his tail. Tails opened the door and the echidna thumped on through like a loose rhino. "I have it!" He was crying, his voice harsh, "I have it!"

"Have what?" Tails stood by the open door, reluctant to close it.

"I have it! It's so simple! The Master Emerald!"

Now Tails was really lost. He gave the echidna a funny expression. "Been eating too many herbs again, Knuckles? Sometimes they make you act weird."

"No!" Knuckles looked frustrated suddenly, as if Tails' lack of attention was foiling time itself. "No. Okay, honestly it might not work at all, but I can speak with the Master Emerald. I command it. It's natural vitality. A masterful artefact and not even I fully understand. But there's a chance."

"Please fill me in."

"Okay. The Master Emerald might yet help Sonic. We take him there by car and see if the Master Emerald restores his memory and brain cells. This might not work..." He was pacing on the carpet like a fanatic. "But it also might. We'll get him to touch the Emerald and then...and then..."

Tails closed the door.

XXX

Much was discussed. Much was decided on. It was a dry hope, and Tails did not let this aspiration kick up a notch too high. They'd let Sonic know of course, even if he'd forget what they had discussed come the following hour, but they'd give it a try tomorrow.

Tails bid the echidna farewell; both planning to meet up at the Thorndyke driveway by late morning (giving Chuck plenty of time to encourage Sonic to take his pills). Worried, but a little relieved, Tails grabbed a cup of water and padded across the soft carpet and over to the bunk bed. Sonic slept in the bottom bed and was fast asleep. Even though the mattress housed plenty of space, he still curled up tightly right under his blankets.

Tails left the glass of water on the nightstand and snuggled in beside him. The house was hauntingly quiet and peaceful. He could dimly hear the cars passing along the main road outside the closed windows and hear the steady wheezy rasp of his brother's breathing. Even the wall clock gave out its sharp, clacking ticks as the second hand journeyed through time.

"Whatever happens, Sonic, whenever you need me, I'll be right here." He whispered close to one of his ears. Sonic of course did not hear him. The accident had changed him into a heavy sleeper, and the mildest sounds that usually woke him up no longer did.

Tails smiled sadly in the dark.

**The End**


	13. Author's Note

Hi all,

for those who are following '**I'll Be right Here'**

I have a very important announcement.

The next and final instalment has been uploaded called '**Porcelain.'**

Just scroll down on my profile and you will find it! Many thanks!

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